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.
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 […]
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Robinho Lazaró was given the ultimate honour of any Football Manager as he became the Brazil boss in August 2030.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 […]
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
A big opportunity came from number one team in the world Spain as 83-year-old Mahtal gave up on his mission to lead the underdog for one final shot at ultimate glory. And it helped that the Spanish FA offered him a contract worth £125k per week!
Baník Ostrava became the first Czechia side to win the Champions League under the tutelage of veteran Zambian manager Trebor Mahtal in 2065. The 81-year-old saw this as the pinnacle of his career, leading the best squad he’d ever compiled, and stood down with his stock at an all-time high. Mahtal decided this was the […]
Trebor Mahtal was building a superb young team at Baník Ostrava, dominating Czechia and coming so close to Europa League glory in 2064. But the 80-year-old Zambian manager was intent on testing his team’s abilities against Europe’s finest.
Zambian manager Trebor Mahtal had built a 40-year career around bringing promising talents to Europe’s less fancied leagues and taking on the continent’s elite. Now aged 78, it was only natural for Mahtal to have set his sights on retirement but he cast those thoughts to one side and began dreaming of challenging Europe’s elite with Baník Ostrava.
After leading BATE Borisov to a record-break 20th Belarussian title in 2061, Trebor Mahtal resigned and went in search of his 26th and final job as a Football Manager. Now aged 77, Mahtal was 13 games short of 2,000 matches as a manager, and decided to wait for an interesting job across Europe to go out with a flourish.
An unbelievable run of form saw BATE Borisov storm from close to the relegation zone to nicking a record-equalling 19th Belarussian title under the tutelage of legendary manager Trebor Mahtal. The Zambian’s latest success saw him lift the 25th domestic title of his 37-year career, leaving him unsure over whether to stick with BATE or look for new options elsewhere.
Trebor Mahtal’s successes left Belarus, Bulgaria, Gibraltar, Hungary, Iceland, Israel, Latvia, Northern Ireland and Poland as the only European nations he needed to conquer outside the big seven. And he takes an intriguing offer from a struggling sleeping giant in Belarus.
An impressive first season in Croatia saw Trebor Mahtal focus on youth and lead HNK Rijeka to 2nd place in the Croatian First League. And that meant an unexpected return to the Champions League – in which they stood absolutely no chance.
Hapoel Be’er Sheva set a new Israeli Premier League record points tally without winning a title in the 2057/58 campaign. But, despite apparently being delighted with Trebor Mahtal’s efforts, the board failed to back him financially. So Mahtal wasted no time in resigning at the start of the summer.
An intriguing option sees Trebor Mahtal join a relatively unfancied club that just missed out on its national title and technically leave the European mainland.