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CM4 Revisited: Still Playing In 2023
Today marks the 20th anniversary of Championship Manager 4 – one of the most controversial games in Sports Interactive’s long-running franchise. To many fans, it was a groundbreaking release that introduced a 3D match engine to our favourite game. To others, it was a broken and buggy mess that was rushed out to the public […]
Running old CM & FM games on Windows
We’re all Football Manager lovers, aren’t we? But as much as we might enjoy the newer titles, I’m sure those of us who’ve been around for a while would love to go back in time – and re-play an older version of FM or Championship Manager. Technology marches on – and those classic games that […]
From The Archives: My Football Manager Forum Stories
I’ve been writing stories around my Championship Manager and Football Manager saves for a very long time. Since I was 13, in fact. When the Fuller family went online in 2003, one of my first visits was to the Sports Interactive forums – and its Championship Manager Stories sub-forum (now known as Football Manager Stories, […]
Player interactions in Football Manager
Being successful in Football Manager isn’t just about signing the right players and building tactics that best suit their skills. You also need to show good people management to keep squad morale high, while also ensuring that your players are motivated and confident. Player interactions are becoming increasingly important in FM. It’s vital know how […]
Let’s Talk About… Football Manager
Every now and then, I like to post my thoughts on a burning topic within the Football Manager community. This might be a significant bug that affects gameplay, a suggestion for a potential new feature,… More
FM13 In 2022: The Superstars That Weren’t
It’s time for another trip back in time here on Fuller FM! I will once again be revisiting my long-time Football Manager 2013 save to see how the footballing world looks in the year 2022. Last time out, we looked at where some of today’s football superstars had ended up 10 seasons into my FM13 […]
Setting up Screen Flow in Football Manager
Back in the days of Championship Manager, the game used to automatically show you the latest results from major competitions such as the World Cup and the Champions League. Some of you probably miss that now, though you can still set that up manually on Football Manager 2023. Hidden in the game settings is an […]
FM13 In 2022: The Best Players In The World?
And now it’s time for something a bit different on Fuller FM. Today, I’ll be revisiting probably my favourite FM game of all time – Football Manager 2013, which just so happens to be celebrating its 10th anniversary next week! My longest and probably best ever save was on FM13. Starting at my hometown club […]
Retro Review: Ultimate Soccer Manager 98
It’s time for another Fuller FM ‘Retro Review’, where I replay a classic football management game from years gone by. I’m particularly excited about this, because it’s an absolute doozy! Today, I will be looking back at a game that many people who grew up in the late 1990s still remember very fondly. This was […]
Blog Update #6
As the final whistle blows on Football Manager 2022, it’s time for another blog update right here on Fuller FM. It’s become an autumn tradition for me to finish each game cycle by updating you on everything I’ve written on the blog this season. I’ll also deliver my final thoughts on FM22 – and I […]
Hale End Heroes: The Final Whistle
Welcome to the 20th and FINAL chapter of my Football Manager 2022 story with Arsenal. In this series, the aim was to win either the Premier League or the Champions League with a team consisting mostly of graduates from the Arsenal youth academy. I will finish this story off with the 2025/2026 season review, before […]
Hale End Heroes: Season 5, Part 4
It’s all or nothing for Arsenal, as the fifth season of my academy challenge comes to an end. After a seven-game winning streak, Arsenal are top of the Premier League table by two points, with just eight matches to play. If our Hale End heroes can hold their nerves, we will be champions for the […]
Hale End Heroes: Season 5, Part 3
After four years of frustration and near-misses, is this the season where Arsenal finally claim a Premier League or Champions League title? We made a fine start to the 2025/2026 campaign, sitting just four points behind leaders Manchester United at the end of December. Today’s chapter will take us through the next three months, which […]
Hale End Heroes: Season 5, Part 2
While the Football Manager 2023 hype train has started, my FM22 series with Arsenal is still going strong – and things are arguably just heating up! Today’s chapter takes us through the first half of the 2025/2026 season, which I previewed in the last installment. Unfortunately, we lost the Community Shield to Liverpool, but that […]
Hale End Heroes: Season 5, Part 1
Welcome to the fifth season of my Football Manager 2022 series with Arsenal. We finished the last campaign by winning the FA Cup at Wembley… but by the end of the 2025/2026 season, I want us to be lifting an even bigger trophy. My challenge of rebuilding Arsenal into a title-winning team with a strong […]
Hale End Heroes: Season 4, Part 4
We’ve now come to the end of my fourth season at Arsenal. 2024/2025 started with high hopes that we could overtake Liverpool and win the Premier League, but inconsistent finishing was ultimately our downfall. Our hopes of major silverware rested on the FA Cup, which… well, you can read about that in the previous chapter. […]
Hale End Heroes: Season 4, Part 3
I never said this Arsenal academy challenge would be easy! Midway through my fourth season, this is already shaping up to be my most frustrating one yet! In case you missed the first half of this campaign, my young Gunners have been VERY inconsistent. While we’ve finally figured out how to defeat our title rivals […]
Hale End Heroes: Season 4, Part 2
In the 2023/2024 season, Arsenal scored a record 107 Premier League goals and picked up 88 points… but still finished runners-up to Liverpool. As we head into my fourth season as Gunners manager, there is plenty of reason for optimism. We have largely kept the same squad that pushed Liverpool so close, and after beating […]
Hale End Heroes: Season 4, Part 1
My Arsenal academy challenge on Football Manager 2022 has reached the halfway point. While my young Gunners have only claimed a couple of EFL Cups during my three-year tenure, I’m confident of bringing some major silverware to the Emirates Stadium over the next three seasons. In the previous chapter, our 2023/2024 season ended in double […]
Assessing and developing youth intakes in Football Manager
It’s youth intake day, and you’re hyped for a potential golden generation. You’re dreaming about bringing through a 200 PA striker who will make Erling Haaland look like Yaya Sanogo. Then you open up that inbox message… “Pfft, the best players only have 3* potential. They’ll never make it. What’s our Head of Youth Development […]
Hale End Heroes: Season 3, Part 4
As the third season of my FM22 academy challenge draws to an end, my free-scoring young Arsenal team is on the hunt for yet more silverware. The previous chapter saw us lift our second EFL Cup, after a crazy Final showdown with Leeds. We also extended our unbeaten Premier League run to 28 games and […]
Hale End Heroes: Season 3, Part 3
We’re now halfway through my third season as Arsenal manager, and things are starting to take shape. In the previous chapter, we made a very rocky start to the campaign by losing our first two games, including a 6-3 thrashing at Liverpool. Since then, however, we have been on an unbeaten run that has put […]
Hale End Heroes: Season 3, Part 2
Third time’s the charm? Let’s hope so, as my third season as Arsenal manager kicks off in earnest. There has been quite the rebuild over the summer, with over £200million spent on new players who will hopefully fix the defensive issues we had last term. I’ve also brought two more Hale End Boys into the […]
Hale End Heroes: Season 3, Part 1
Passion, clarity, energy. Those are the three things Arsenal desperately need as we head into the tricky third season of my Football Manager 2022 youth challenge. The 2022/2023 season was a real rollercoaster ride. Although a disappointing second-half collapse saw us finish 6th in the Premier League, we also made it to the Champions League […]
Hale End Heroes
“Hale End Heroes” was my main Football Manager 2022 story, published exclusively on Fuller FM throughout the summer of 2022. In this story, I took over the reins at Arsenal, with the aim of restoring… More
Hale End Heroes: Season 2, Part 4
The real-life 2022/2023 Premier League campaign might have just kicked off… but on my FM22 save with Arsenal, it’s almost over. And what a ride it has been! Yes, this season has been an absolute disaster – at least where the league is concerned. It looks like Arsenal will miss out on a top-four finish, […]
Hale End Heroes: Season 2, Part 3
My Arsenal adventure on Football Manager 2022 continues – and this chapter could be a very important one, as we attempt to lift our first trophy since I became manager. The Gunners are heading into 2023 sitting just inside the top four of the Premier League, but we also have some defensive issues that need […]
Hale End Heroes: Season 2, Part 2
My second season as Arsenal manager is now underway – and after leading the Gunners to 4th place in the Premier League last time out, the pressure is firmly on me to consolidate our place among England’s elite. In the previous chapter, I looked ahead to the 2022/2023 campaign by unveiling a couple of major […]
Hale End Heroes: Season 2, Part 1
It’s time to kick off the second season of my Arsenal series on Football Manager 2022. My main objective in this series is to win either the Premier League or the Champions League with a squad consisting mostly of Gunners academy graduates, such as Emile Smith Rowe and Bukayo Saka. The Gunners made steady progress […]
Hale End Heroes: Season 1, Part 3
How time flies! This is only the third chapter of my new FM22 series with Arsenal, and already we’re coming to the end of the 2021/2022 season! Today’s installment is a bumper one, as we go through the January transfer window, meet my first youth intake, and recap the entire second half of the season. […]
Hale End Heroes: Season 1, Part 2
The weather may be hotter than Granit Xhaka’s temper, but there’s always a good time for Football Manager! So sit back, grab a cool beverage, and enjoy this second chapter of my new FM22 series with Arsenal! My main goal in this series is to lead Arsenal to Premier League or Champions League glory – […]
Hale End Heroes: Season 1, Part 1
Welcome to Arsenal… and to the start of a brand-new Football Manager 2022 series right here on Fuller FM! Yes, for this save, I will be pushing Mikel Arteta out of his Emirates hotseat and taking charge of my beloved Gunners… but there’s a twist. The end goal is to win either the Premier League […]
Football Manager: What’s in a name?
Now for something completely different here on Fuller FM! Football has had its fair share of amusing monikers over the years – from the 19th-century England forward Harry Daft to the aptly-named Celtic flop Rafael Scheidt, via the iconic Paraguayan right-back Chiqui Arce. And as that very real Championship Manager advert from 1996 shows, the […]
FM22: The Age-Old Problem
In Football Manager 2021 – and in most previous FMs – many people complained about older players’ attributes declining too quickly. Once a player turned 32, their physical attributes would fall so fast that they’d be almost worthless by their 35th birthday. This isn’t always the case in real-life, as better nutrition and advances in […]
Retro Review: FIFA Manager 07
Hey everyone, Fuller FM here – the blogosphere’s most average virtual Football Manager, and it’s time for my retro review of FIFA Manager 07. Some of you might remember my ‘EA MAY’ mini-series from last spring, when I reviewed three separate games from Electronic Arts’ now-defunct FIFA Manager series. Though we haven’t yet made it […]
Review: Soccer Manager 2022
It’s that time of year again. For the fourth season in a row, I’ve had a look at the latest edition of the free-to-play Soccer Manager series. Some of you might remember my previous Soccer Manager reviews. I wasn’t too hot on either SM19 or SM20, but I gave a more positive review of SM21, […]
Improving international management on Football Manager
Let’s talk about international management in Football Manager. Club football might be the bread and butter of our sport, but there is nothing quite like the international game. Representing your country is always a high point in a player’s career, and winning the World Cup can lift an elite player to legendary status – like […]
Retro Review: FourFourTwo Touchline Passion
“If you can fill the unforgiving minute with sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,“Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it, and – which is more – you’ll be a man, my son!“Ladies and gentlemen, Fuller FM will be playing 4-4-f***ing-2.” Welcome to another Retro Review here on Fuller FM. Today, I’ve decided to […]
Retro databases in Football Manager: Awesome, but impractical?
Let’s talk about retro databases in Football Manager. When we discuss which features we most want to see added to FM in the future, one of THE most popular requests is for Sports Interactive to add official historic databases. The ability to manage a football team at any point in history – or even just […]
FM Mythbusting: Are English Teams Overrated?
It’s time to resolve a debate that has been raging across the Football Manager for years. Are English teams – and English players, for that matter – too overpowered? Some people argue that Premier League players are rated too highly compared to their counterparts in La Liga, Serie A, Ligue 1 and the Bundesliga. They […]
Review: We Are Football
And so 2021 is coming to an end. I hope you’ve enjoyed the Christmas holidays as much as possible, and that you’ve been keeping safe with your loved ones during what has been another difficult winter period. You may’ve noticed that there hasn’t been much Football Manager content on here lately. Yes, despite my cautiously […]
Developing your own coaches in Football Manager
One of the most exciting aspects of any Football Manager career is when you develop young prospects to reach their full potential. Bringing through an academy wonderkid into the senior team and on the road to superstardom is one thing… but what about developing your coaches? When starting a new save, many FMers like to […]
The story of Football Manager’s newgen faces
Let’s talk about newgen faces in Football Manager. It seems like with every passing FM, there’s a fierce debate about the 3D faces that are assigned to youth intake players. Some people in the FM community hate them; others just tolerate them. Having played this series for over 20 years, I consider myself an FM […]
My thoughts on Football Manager 2022
After a quiet few weeks, Fuller FM has returned for another season! I took some time off from blogging after finishing my journeyman series, partly to recharge my batteries, and partly because of a family crisis, but now I’m ready to get going again! Football Manager 2022 has been officially out for just over a […]
Blog Update #5
Ladies and gentlemen… this is blog update number 5. Yes, it’s time for my annual post where I update you on what I’ve been up to over the past 12 months. With my long-term Football Manager 2021 save now completed, I’m ready to give my final thoughts on what has perhaps been the most divisive […]
Journey of a Deadman: #46 (Basel) – Finale
It’s May 2031, and everything has come down to these final five matches for Shama Deadman and his Basel team. In case you missed the previous chapter, Basel are still leading the Swiss Super League as they check back-to-back titles. They have also made it through to the Swiss Cup Final. Can Shama end his […]
Journey of a Deadman: #45 (Basel) – Swiss Brutality
It’s time for another installment of my Football Manager 2021 journeyman series, as Shama Deadman’s quest for another league title with Basel continues. In the previous chapter, Basel’s defence of their Super League crown encountered a few problems, not least when it came to scoring. But a mid-season epiphany has led Shama to a tactical […]
Journey of a Deadman: #44 (Basel) – Second Season Syndrome
We’re into the last full month of Football Manager 2021‘s life cycle… but my journeyman series is still going strong. For now. Shama Deadman has already won the Swiss Super League title with Basel – and now he’s out to defend it. Today’s chapter will take us through the first half of the 2030/2031 season […]
Journey of a Deadman: #43 (Basel) – Die Besten!
Against all the odds, Shama Deadman has completed his first decade in football management – and he’s finally added a trophy to his CV! After taking over at Basel in the summer of 2029, Shama led ‘Die Bebbi’ to Swiss Super League glory in his first season. You can read about that first season in […]
Journey of a Deadman: #42 (Basel) – Ten Years Later
It’s been a long time coming… but after a decade in management, in which he has managed four teams in as many countries, Shama Deadman has finally won a trophy. If you haven’t yet read about how Basel secured the Swiss Super League title, or even if you just want to relive Shama’s crowning moment, […]