What do you do during Pre Season?

So i have just finished my first season with Sheffield Wednesday getting promoted via the play offs in a great win over Sheffield United 3-0.

I have basically the same squad now as when the game first started. So here is what i intend to do.

- Get rid of any players that are not going to be good enough to play in the premiership.

- Sack most of my backroom staff and look at employing better Physios, coaches, assistant manager, scouts etc.

- Look at my youth team and reserve squad and release / transfer list pretty much all of them as they are not good enough at all.

- Any players i decide to keep i tend to look at extending their contracts.

- I then look through any of the free transfers / players out of contract to better my squad and usually get more players than needed. Just to make my squad have strength in depth.

- Send my scouts out to "world" search.

- Obviously now that i have just been promoted my aim is to stay in the league. I have to now look at my formation and tactics and decide what im to do for the next season. Defend like hell to scrape points or go all out to win games.

What do you usually think about during pre season and what do you tend to do to plan for the next season?

Same as you and also try to replace the older players to keep the average age down. After a few comfortable seasons it's easy to forget, look at your squad and realize half your squad only has a couple of decent playing years left, with not enough money to replace them.

Am on my 2020 season 11th season with man utd, I normally go on Tour to a place to play teams.

I never buy senior players anymore, i always buy players for the reserves and u18, thats it really

my time is pretty much like this...

end of season... transfer list players not needed, offer new contracts to those who have 1 year left on current deal

mid may- mid july.... scout for new players, search tranfer list, sign new players. check for expiries at new year

mid june.... arrange friendlies

End of season - Transfer list all players who aren't needed, aren't good enough (or in the case of the youngsters, who aren't expected to be good enough in the next couple of years), and all players 30+ (unless it's clear that they're still good enough)

Beginning of June - Start looking for new players, either loans, or freebies, but probably buying some for a fee as well, making sure they're better than the player they'd be replacing, and preferably no older than 27

When the fixtures are announced - Arrange 6 pre season friendlies, the last being about a week before my 1st game, and a 5 day gap between each, starting off easy, and gradually increasing in difficulty

July - If going for loans, make my move then, as well as trying to tie up any loose deals. Renew contracts of those who have 1 year to go on their current contract, who are good enough, and not too old.

pretty much the same as most people, but I used to be really age-ist and look to get rid of players as soon as they hit 30!! lol

I've had it easy in FM10 cos I chose Man "frikkin rich" City, so money is not a problem (I spend £100m to £200M each season).

-these days, I'm constantly searching for young players with good potential that have been scouted by my team and to fill my reserves and U18s.

-Check scouts searches and restart or change their assignments

-Players that are unhappy and want to go cos I havent used them much may get sold.

-Check those players whose contracts are running short.

-Fend off Teams trying to poach my talent.

-If I'm finding my players in a certain position are getting on a bit, check who is in the reserves who may be able to start stepping in, otherwise look to buy a younger replacement.

I always go on a tour of the USA for some reason

Improve my coaching staff if I'm in the mood

Try to bring in as much money through players I dont need, dead wood etc

I tour stupid places like Afghanistan, N. Korea and Somalia using a lot of my hot prospects, trying tactics ect.

Buy a mixture really, predominantly <24 y.o or get a >30 former legend (Raul being my recent) to use to train youngsters and all that jazz.

Rest of it I holiday, with alert when transfer offer is made or a job @ higher rep clubs

They key phase is when I get the budgets, or if it's close enough July the first. That's when I go through contracts and decide what I'm going to do with my squad in terms of if I want to offload anyone, or what to specifically look out for when I do my long trawl through player search, sending out my best scout to do reports on rather a lot of 'possibles'. Though sometimes during the previous year I'll form plans regarding what to do with the squad so there often won't be that much to do on that front when pre-season comes around.