Has anybody ever lost the league ... after making it big?

[coppicat]

I am new to the later editions of FM but remember that once you had created a team that made you champions, it was pretty much given that you would win the league every year after that. Cup games where a different thing, but over a complete season your team would always be so strong that you would come up as winners. Is this still the same in FM nowadays?

I won the league two years running and then suddenly lost to a Man U who had the most incredible run. The first 3 years the points were very close at the top end of season though. Last 4 years however, I have won pretty convincingly as the team just gets better each year and its hard to see anyone narrow that gap. 

I must admit that I actually liked (although frustrating) that a team could manage to beat me after having become champions the first time. That never use to happen and just added to your motivation to build an even better team. It also looks better in the history of the league to have that occasional team have a great season and win... as long of course as you dominate most of the time. :-)

Last two years I have won pretty much everything. League, cups and champions league. Now after buying the best striker in the World from Chelsea, the team has again taken a step up and now I have two absolute world class players in every position. Once you have reached that level... is it possible for an AI controlled team to build a team that can challenge you?  

Edited May 22, 2021 by coppicat

[Grifty]

I played for 5 seasons in the Swedish Premier Division before winning the title twice in a row before only winning it once in the next 5 years, but then I went 10 years in a row.

I have enjoyed monitoring the other European Leagues. to see. who would win. The English Prem for example, I'm in 2048 and Man City have not won a single title so far, and only came 2nd 4 times. Chelsea have been the dominant team, but now Everton and Sheff United are the biggest rivals for the title. Liverpool have been relegated and are a mid table team at best right now despite dominating the early seasons.

[mrw072]

I've never had a team that dominant, but in FM20 I managed to build a St Etienne team that won Ligue 1 3 years in a row, with not necessarily the best players.  There were probably 2 or 3 teams in the league with better players than me.  But I had the best team.  In the 4th year of my title winning run I sold a key player as he wanted to leave and had some key injuries, so I remember finishing 4th that year.  Nowhere near challenging for the title.  It probably kept my interest in the game as I had a bit of a challenge from that.  I think if I had finished outside of the CL spots one year it would have been disastrous for me as that money meant my team could challenge at the top.  We were hopeless in Europe though.  

[laurentius82]

Once you win the league, you will always win it after that unless you make some really stupid (I mean like AI-level stupid) decisions in terms of squad building or tactics. IMO there's little point in playing a save beyond that point as it becomes rather tedious. 

[phd_angel]

Agree. It's a mystery that top favorites' performance often declines mid season, with some dramatic last-match results. I can't recall my top favorite club winning the league over a convincing series of years.

Edited May 20, 2021 by phd_angel

[silentwars]

Won the league on this years FM with Werder Bremen in the second the next season Bayern won the title. Mainly down to having European games which I didn't have the previous season. After that I overhauled the squad and won it back to back before moving onto a different save.

[gunnm0nk]

On 20/05/2021 at 11:41, laurentius82 said:

Once you win the league, you will always win it after that unless you make some really stupid (I mean like AI-level stupid) decisions in terms of squad building or tactics. IMO there's little point in playing a save beyond that point as it becomes rather tedious. 

This might be true in a top tier league where you have some of the best players in the world, but it's definitely not true everywhere. I recently had an AI team which won four cups and the league in a small nation, losing only twice domestically in about 60 matches. One of those was to me. We finished 2nd 13 points behind them. We were 11pts above third. 

[Pelz]

On 20/05/2021 at 19:41, laurentius82 said:

Once you win the league, you will always win it after that unless you make some really stupid (I mean like AI-level stupid) decisions in terms of squad building or tactics. IMO there's little point in playing a save beyond that point as it becomes rather tedious. 

Just lost the league to PSG by a point, having won it the year previously... (they got my hopes up on final day, being held 1-1 by Nice until the 79th minute whilst we steamrollered our final game 4-0). We lost one game all season! PSG lost two but I had a couple more draws. 

.. in a nightmare end to the season we also managed to blow our Euro Cup hopes (dropped out of CL group stage also by a point, picking up only 1 from final three games) - beat Feyenoord 1-0 in semi final first leg, went 2-0 up in second leg after 30 mins so made the ill fated decision to praise my players and all hell broke loose, proper nuclear level catastrophe with two goalkeeping howlers to boot - lost the tie 4-2, conceding three goals in 13 second half minutes.

Only got myself to blame really - I got over ambitious tactically (1/2-0 wasnt enough anymore, I chased 4’s and 5’s instead of closing games out) and a little complacent in areas... my signings were okay but I failed to bring in a CB after one left in Jan. Little slip ups like that. 

Might be easy for others but the game is certainly keeping me on my toes. PSG’s squad is getting ridiculous and major clubs are sniffing around our top players with some signalling they’d like to move on.

Probably one of my more challenging saves this year tbh.

I manage Monaco btw.

Edited May 22, 2021 by Pelz