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Alphabet Challenge | Part 2 | Finding Trebor Mahtal’s First Club
Our Alphabet Challenge series gets up and running as fledgling Zambian manager goes in search of a new club, and finds himself in Latvia.
Alphabet Challenge | Part 1 | Introducing An Epic New FM24 Challenge
With the news that Football Manager 2025 was being cancelled, I got my thinking cap on for a new challenge that would see us through the remainder of the seemingly neverending FM24 save cycle. One that immediately stood out was a recommendation in our top 10 challenges guide – the A To Z Journeyman aka the Alphabet Challenge.
Wonderkid Factory | Part 17 | Bundesliga Battle Built On Defence
The homegrown stars of 1. FSV Mainz racked up consecutive Bundesliga titles and showed their ability to compete with Europe’s best in an exciting 2038/39 campaign. Now, Roberto Lazaró was looking to make it three in a row as he mulled over this being his final season in football management.
Wonderkid Factory | Part 16 | The Jürgen Klopp Park Era Begins
The small city of Mainz, on the outskirts of Frankfurt in western Germany, wasn’t accustomed to throwing huge parties. But you wouldn’t have known it as seemingly the entirety of its 220,000 population took to the streets to celebrate their heroes lifting 1. FSV Mainz’s maiden Bundesliga title in 2038. The city’s streets flowed with Pilsner and the parties went on for what felt like weeks.
Wonderkid Factory | Part 15 | Mainz’s First Bundesliga Title Race
The exciting youngsters of 1. FSV Mainz came minutes away from consecutive European titles and edged close to the Bundesliga title race in Roberto Lazaró’s fifth season at the club. The next step, in their manager’s mind, was to become more competitive against Germany’s big boys as they headed into their final season at the council-owned MEWA Arena.
Wonderkid Factory | Part 14 | Consecutive European Finals
The streets of Mainz were painted red and white in the summer of 2036 as fans of 1. FSV Mainz 05 launched the biggest party in the city’s history, celebrating their heroes winning their first major trophy. Roberto Lazaró, club legend Brajan Gruda and captain José Bertazzi led an open-top bus tour and spilled in […]
Wonderkid Factory | Part 13 | Mainz Legend, Brajan Gruda
Huge relegation favourites 1. FSV Mainz 05 surprised Bundesliga to finish 7th and secure European qualification. However, the lack of an out-and-out goalscorer was worrying Roberto Lazaró heading into the summer of 2035.
Salvando Santos | Part 15 | Lazaró Leaves Santos On A High
An epic bottle job saw Santos Futebol Clube hand the Série A title to Flamengo, only to impressively recover their nerve and win their second Copa Libertadores of the Robinho Lazaró reign. Heading into 2036, Lazaró was fully focused on regaining the Brazilian league crown in what he planned to be his final season at Santos.
Wonderkid Factory | Part 12 | Great At Home, Terrible Away!
Mainz survived with relative ease in their first season back in Bundesliga. But the big challenge now facing Roberto Lazaró, moving into his third season in Germany, was to continue developing his young squad – some of whom were one year away from obtaining homegrown status.
Salvando Santos | Part 14 | A Seven-Star Santos Bottle Job
Santos FC enjoyed one of their best-ever seasons in 2034, winning both their state championship and Série A before only dodgy goalkeeper injuries and a dodgy penalty prevented them from winning Copa Libertadores. Legendary manager Robinho Lazaró took a little time out to celebrate those successes and recover from a wild year that also included […]
FM Guide | 25 More Teams To Manage On FM24 (While Still Pretending It’s FM25)
Oh Football Manager 2024, will your time never end? In light of yesterday’s unsurprising cancellation of Football Manager 2025, we’ll have had two years (if not more) of the FM24 cycle if/when Football Manager 2026 is upon us. However, rather than crying into our cereal that some blokes didn’t release a computer game, let’s look at some positives and explore some options to pretend we’re playing FM25 on FM24.
Wonderkid Factory | Part 11 | Stepping Up To Bundesliga
Roberto Lazaró led a young but exciting Mainz side to an expected automatic promotion despite a firesale of 26 players for £119m in his first season in Germany. Now the pressure was on Lazaró, who was already listed in Mainz fans’ favoured personnel, and his inexperienced side to survive back in Bundesliga. But the longer-term […]
Salvando Santos | Part 13 | Lazaró Leads Brazil To World Cup 2034
Robinho Lazaró’s time in charge of Brazil started with a little disappointment as a tame performance saw them lose 1-0 to arch rivals Argentina in the Final of Copa América. The nation still believed in him so his next task was to lead them to World Cup 2034 in South Korea.
Salvando Santos | Part 12 | The World’s Best Youth Academy Delivers
Lazaró’s good financial management saw Santos come into his 11th season as manager with £300m nin the bank for the first time. There was more exciting news off the pitch as the club returned to the newly renovated Santos Stadium, which had seen a 16,000-seat expansion to take the stadium to a 49,127 capacity for the 2034 campaign.
Wonderkid Factory | Part 10 | Finding A New Wonderkid Factory
After leading Valencia CF to Champions League and LaLiga glory with a fully homegrown team over the last two seasons, Roberto Lazaró decided it was time for a change.
Salvando Santos | Part 11 | Santos Vs. The World’s Best
The streets of Santos, in Sao Paulo, witnessed one of the biggest parties in living memory as Robinho Lazaró and his young team of heroes returned home from Colombia as Champions of South America.
Wonderkid Factory | Part 9 | Valencia’s Best Title Shot So Far
Roberto Lazaró joined in the Champions League celebrations for a few days before returning to work to start plotting how to close the gap to the mighty Real Madrid and Barcelona, who’d shared the last 7 Spanish titles.
Salvando Santos | Part 10 | Managing Brazil
Robinho Lazaró was given the ultimate honour of any Football Manager as he became the Brazil boss in August 2030.
Salvando Santos | Part 9 | Robinho Lazaró: Santos Legend
Santos Futebol Clube racked up consecutive Brazilian titles for the first time since the good old days of the 1960s as Robinho Lazaró and his team of talented youngsters again pipped Palmeiras to the Serie A crown.
Wonderkid Factory | Part 8 | Chasing First Silverware
The big two of Barcelona and Real Madrid seemed near-invincible as they both racked up over 100 points in 2029/30. And, despite Valencia having the best 2 players in the league, they finished a massive 27 and 29 points behind the pair.
Salvando Santos | Part 8 | Targeting Consecutive Brazilian Title
Santos Futebol Clube departed their 114-year home Vila Belmiro on a high, winning the club’s first-ever league and cup double before an exciting move to a brand-new stadium for the 2031 campaign. But that success saw the pressure ramp up on manager Robinho Lazaró.
Wonderkid Factory | Part 7 | Homegrown Striker Marco Steps Up
Valencia CF had established themselves as the best of the rest in Spain after six seasons under Roberto Lazaró. However, the dominance of Real Madrid and Barcelona and the lack of a goalscorer had the manager concerned about how he could take the club to the next level.
Salvando Santos | Part 7 | A Fitting Ending To The Vila Belmiro Era
Santos FC suffered a fairly unsurprising dropoff in 2029 as they backed up a first Brazilian title in 24 years by dropping to a 6th-place finish, 25 points behind champions Palmeiras. But manager Robinho Lazaró was choosing to remain optimistic given the talent they had coming through the ranks.
Golazzo | Part 7 | Montella Proves He’s The Best In The World
Atalanta BC shocked Italy as their superstar attack of Ronaldo, Raúl, Álvaro Recoba, Vincenzo Montella, Domenico Morfeo and Juan Román Riquelme blitzed them to a maiden Serie A title with 128 league goals in 1999 (2028). And those exploits saw Montella and Recoba installed as Atalanta legends.
Bottom At Christmas | Season 6 | Final-Day Relegation Faceoff
Big Sam Allardyce made it 3 survivals out of 5 as he led a beleaguered Wolves to unlikely Premier League safety in 2028. But there was no time to hang around in Wolverhampton as Big Sam tendered his resignation, holidayed ahead to Christmas, and went in search of a new club to save.
Bottom At Christmas | Season 5 | A Christmas Cracker Of A Relegation Scrap
Big Sam enjoyed a positive fourth season of his Bottom At Christmas experiment, leading an underachieving Köln side to comfortable Bundesliga survival. And that made it 2 survivals, 2 relegations and 1 sacking. But, despite growing fond of the German club, he wasted no time in taking 7 months out of the game and holidaying ahead to Christmas 2027.
Bottom At Christmas | Season 4 | Reviving A Massive Underachiever
Big Sam suffered his second relegation in three seasons of the Bottom At Christmas challenge as his Sampdoria side was relegated by local rivals Genoa on the final day of the 2025/26 campaign. He took seven months off to lick his wounds and holiday ahead to Christmas Day 2026.
Golazzo | Part 6 | The Greatest Attack In The World
Italian football saw seismic change as a young Atalanta side established itself as the 2nd best in Serie A in 1998 (2027). Their massive overperformance saw the vultures yet again circling their best players, clearly cognizant of the club’s dreadful finances, but things were about to get very exciting in Bergamo.
Wonderkid Factory | Part 6 | Lacking A Goalscorer
Valencia CF enjoyed their best season so far under the stewardship of Roberto Lazaró in the 2027/28 campaign. And the manager was delighted to see his approach to blooding youngsters was resulting in plenty of progression.
Bottom At Christmas | Season 3 | Epic Final-Day Rival Relegation Decider
Big Sam Allardyce enjoyed a much stronger Season 2 of his Bottom At Christmas challenge, leading Cádiz CF safely away from the LaLiga dropzone. But he swiftly stood down and holidayed ahead ready for a new challenge in Season 3. Looking back at his former clubs, Nottingham Forest gained promotion at the first tome of […]
Salvando Santos | Part 6 | Blooding “The New Ronaldinho and Robinho”
Youthful Santos Futebol Clube claimed the club’s first Brazilian title in 24 years as they stormed to Série A success in November 2028. Manager Robinho Lazaró now had to ensure they kept hold of their best youngsters to try and defend that title and aim for their first Copa Libertadores Final since 2020.
Golazzo | Part 5 | Resplendent Recoba
Atalanta surprised everyone, including their manager, as a sublime end-of-season surge saw them climb into the European places and finish 3rd in Serie A in 1997 (2026). The challenge now was for Roberto Lombardi to strengthen his squad and hold onto his exciting youngsters.
Wonderkid Factory | Part 5 | Record-Breaking Valencia CF Season
Valencia CF’s team of young, predominantly homegrown talents continued to exceed expectations as they split LaLiga’s “big three” for the first time in Roberto Lazaró’s fourth season at the club. But Lazaró was looking for some of his hot prospects to step up in the next couple of campaigns.
Bottom At Christmas | Season 2 | Excellent January Transfer Business
Season 1 of Bottom At Christmas ended with a pretty pathetic relegation at Nottingham Forest. But, for some reason, Forest didn’t sack Big Sam, so he was forced to resign and holiday ahead to Christmas 2024.
Salvando Santos | Part 5 | Massive Academy Star Sale
Rapidly improving youngsters led Santos a first top-5 finish under Robinho Lazaró and the Copa Libertadores semis in 2027. They also dominated the awards for best young players, which proved the serious amount of potential at the club.
Golazzo | Part 4 | Challenging Serie A’s Big Boys
Atalanta BC mixed it with the big boys of Serie A and finished just outside the top half in their first season in the top flight. And the club’s board backed manager Roberto Lombardi by agreeing to his requests for improved training and youth facilities, youth recruitment and junior coaching over the summer of 1996 (2025).
Wonderkid Factory | Part 4 | A Gayá-Less New Era
After 103 years at their historic home, Valencia Club de Fútbol bid farewell to La Mestalla as they ushered in a new era at the 55,000-capacity Nuevo Mestalla, but they would do so without their inspirational homegrown captain.
Bottom At Christmas | Season 1 | A Shambolic Start
In the last two versions of Football Manager, we’ve run experiments with Big Sam Allardyce stepping in to try and rescue teams sitting bottom of their leagues at Christmas time. We weren’t planning to run it on FM24 but, with the delay to FM25, this Christmas period seemed like a good time to revive the series.
Salvando Santos | Part 4 | Youth Awards Domination
Robinho Lazaró was pretty happy with the progress that Santos CF was making. They were also progressing off the field as infrastructure improvements saw Santos complete perfect 20 youth recruitment, junior coaching and training facilities with 18 youth facilities.
Golazzo | Part 3 | Competing In The Best League In The World
Atalanta secured an immediate return to the best league in the world by blowing away Serie B with over 100 goals and points. But they faced a big step up in quality if they were to meet the board’s objective of surviving in Serie A – which wasn’t helped by a poor financial situation.
Wonderkid Factory | Part 3 | Adios La Mestalla
A strong second season in Valencia saw Roberto Lazaró lead Los Che to 4th place and Champions League football for the final campaign at their legendary La Mestalla home. But Lazaró was keen to impress a sense of realism at the club, especially given how far clear the big three remained.
Golazzo | Part 2 | Attacking Quartet Destroys Serie B
Heading back 30 years in time, Atalanta have just been relegated from the greatest league in the world, Italy’s Serie A, and are red-hot favourites to be promoted at the first time of asking. To achieve that aim, the club took a massive gamble by turning to a rookie local football lover to deliver a change in fortunes – Bergamo-born coach Roberto Lombardi.
Salvando Santos | Part 3 | History Makers Corítiba
Impressive performances in their first season back in Série A saw Santos FC finish in the top eight and, unexpectedly, qualify for Copa Libertadores. But rising expectations could present a problem for an inexperienced team that would have to endure massive fixture congestion.
Golazzo | Part 1 | Football Italia In Football Manager
Growing up in the early 1990s, some of my earliest memories of “getting into” football news and watching football were formed by Channel 4’s Football Italia. We’ll celebrate that with new series in the 1994/95 database for FM24.
Wonderkid Factory | Part 2 | A Surprise Cup Final
A promising first season in Valencia saw Roberto Lazaró secure European qualification despite form dramatically tailing off in the last few matches. Lazaró’s success convinced owner Peter Lim to agree to youth recruitment and facilities improvements over the summer.
Salvando Santos | Part 2 | Shaking Up Série A
Santos FC’s first-ever taste of the second tier of Brazilian football only lasted for one season as Robinho Lazaró spearheaded the club to its maiden Série B title at the first time of asking. The big task now was for Lazaró to prepare an understrength side to try and stay in Série A.
Wonderkid Factory | Part 1 | Looking To Los Cules’ Youth
One of my main Football Manager 2025 saves was going to be another wonderkid factory challenge trying to deliver success using a club’s youth production. However, unlike our previous saves with Envigado and AZ Alkmaar, which relied solely on the clubs’ academies, this iteration was going to allow us to sign players from within the city the club was based in.
25 Teams To Manage For The Rest Of FM24 (Pretending It’s FM25)
Are you struggling for inspiration for save ideas with Football Manager 2025 being delayed until March (at least)? We got our thinking caps on for clubs that could pose an interesting challenge for the next few months, if you pretend you’re playing FM25 in FM24.
Salvando Santos | Part 1 | A Fallen Giant
One of my main saves in Football Manager 2025 was going to be a youth-focused save with a Brazilian club. But, with the ongoing delay to the game, I’m not sure whether that save will come to fruition, so I decided to head to Brazil for a new FM24 challenge.
EuroTrip | Part 48 | The End Of EuroTrip
Zambian manager Trebor Mahtal etched his name into the history books as he led a pretty scary Spain side to World Cup glory in 2070. The 86-year-old manager tendered his resignation and was swiftly offered roles by Nigeria, Senegal, Uruguay and, most intriguingly, Argentina and Brazil. But he was done with management and decided to retire on a high.