Who To Be? FM23... Early Thoughts

[Lesterfan_Cambiasso]

Hello Everyone

Just wanted to get a thread going and ask some opinions on teams really.

Thinking ahead to FM23 and who will make for good teams to manage. Had some early ideas just wondered your thoughts.

Please bear in mind, im not that hardcore of a player.

 

MANCHESTER UNITED - New exciting signings, new manager, re-establish dominance in the city, get the league won and end the Man City & Liverpool dominance. See out the end of Ronaldo's career.

 

CHELSEA - Spent loads of money, not improved the team, no clear style of play or preferred formation, big expectations and needing a new manager.

 

DERBY COUNTY - Huge rebuild needed, massive club playing at far too low of a level after financial ruin.

 

ALBION ROVERS - I love this team. Plucky Scottish minnows who have battled relegation 4 or 5 seasons running from Scottish League 2, tiny stadium and competing on an unlevel playing field with full time teams and teams who have decent amounts of money like Dumbarton, formerly Cove Rangers and Kelty Hearts in previous seasons too. Tiny squad.

 

MARSEILLE - Toppling PSG would be a huge ask but their squad is made of players im very familiar with, most of whom had careers in the premier league. Feel there is potential to build the club and see off the threats of Monaco, Nice, Lyon etc for "best of the rest"

 

Theres a few others too but my initial inclination is possibly towards one of Man Utd, Chelsea or Albion Rovers.

 

Which do you think would make for a good save, and maybe even suggest a team for me to get stuck into and why?

 

Thank You!

 

[frog-kvfb]

Barca great young core to the team plenty of youth prospects a new star striker to get the best out of. Also possibly still a good bit of debt to pay off

[Welshace]

Wrexham, for obvious reasons.

 

Bordeaux - fallen giant

[sedge11]

Got big teams like Lyon, Atalanta and Valencia who all failed to qualify for europe last season. Be decent teams to take on.

[Jamie Cortez]

Real Betis I think for me initially, and then the obligatory Man United save but Chelsea could also be a good save to go for.

however this year, I’ll be playing differently, I’ll be adding potential signings to the DoF list and he must close the deal from start to finish. Should make it more of a challenge seeing as the DoF is probably only likely to make deals for less than 50% of what you ask for. 

[kopfan1977]

Cardiff City - No funds, Debt up to their eyeballs and a newly assembled squad of majority free transfers. And an owner that has no direction or clue on how to run a football club.

[EnigMattic1]

I'm going for Valour FC in Canada. That is always fun. However, depending on how they are set up, FC Edmonton in the same league could be interesting due to their current situation. Serious financial problems resulting in around 80% of the 2021 seasons squad not being retained and having to play most of, if not all this season reliant on loans from the other CPL teams.

[TheJanitor]

Leicester - rebuilding a stagnating team with some quality players.

Rennes - incredible academy, but a front line combining Doku, Sulemana, Gouiri, Majer, and Terrier is the main attraction.

Roma - Dybala! 343 with him, Abraham, and Pellegrini upfront and Spinazzola and Karsdorp running down the wings.

Really looking forward to this.

[Flash Gordon]

I generally stay away from the English leagues as I find the Premier League to be so powerful that the game stops being enjoyable for me. Though I might be tempted by Sunderland if their young squad has as many high potential players as they should have. 

Other than that, I tend to follow a pretty familiar formula of taking a club from a lower European league as far as I can. In FM22 that was to win a Europa League and 10 League titles with Hammarby. 

In FM23, I'm tempted by bringing Wisla Krakow back from the 1st division, to the peak of Polish football and then seeing if I can compete in Europe. 

Another idea I have for a story is to make the once free territory of Trieste, one of the most important seaports of numerous empires a force in the footballing world by bringing Triestina to glory from Serie C in Italy, using a transfer strategy drawn from their historical allegiances and geographical location (Croatia, Slovenia, Austria, Hungary and Italy).

 

[wearesporting]

1 hour ago, Flash Gordon said:

I generally stay away from the English leagues as I find the Premier League to be so powerful that the game stops being enjoyable for me. Though I might be tempted by Sunderland if their young squad has as many high potential players as they should have. 

Other than that, I tend to follow a pretty familiar formula of taking a club from a lower European league as far as I can. In FM22 that was to win a Europa League and 10 League titles with Hammarby. 

In FM23, I'm tempted by bringing Wisla Krakow back from the 1st division, to the peak of Polish football and then seeing if I can compete in Europe. 

Another idea I have for a story is to make the once free territory of Trieste, one of the most important seaports of numerous empires a force in the footballing world by bringing Triestina to glory from Serie C in Italy, using a transfer strategy drawn from their historical allegiances and geographical location (Croatia, Slovenia, Austria, Hungary and Italy).

 

Funny you mention Triestina. I'm literally doing that save right now with the same idea after discovering the history of the city.

[oblomov]

Udinese has a good team 

- you have the wonderkid Udogie

- you have 2 great central defenders with Becão & Bijol 

- A BWM with Wallace

- Pereyra who can play as an advanced playmaker 

- and Deulofeu is a very very good player in the Serie A 

- Beto who's a perfect Target Man who also has a lot of pace 

in my fm 22 game i managed to win the Serie A with Udinese in the second season (after taking over when they were rock bottom with 10 games to play in the first season), using the selection that was in place since the beginning of the game. I only lost 2 games out of 38. 

[BadAss88]

I have a little () list for FM23:

England: Arsenal, Man City, Man Utd, Chelsea, Newcastle, Southampton, Aston Villa, West Ham, Burnley, QPR, Sheffield Wed & AFC Wimbledon.
Italy: Napoli, Atalanta, Udinese, Lazio, AC Milan, AS Roma, Inter, Juventus, Fiorentina, Sampdoria, Bari, Parma & Palermo,
Spain: Real Madrid, Barcelona, Atletico Madrid & Valencia.
Germany: Borussia Dortmund, RB Leipzig & Bayer Leverkusen.
France: Marseille, Monaco, Lyon, Rennes, Bordeaux & Caen.
Portugal: Benfica, Braga, Porto, Sporting CP & Vitoria Guimaraes.
Other: PSV, Ajax, Galatasaray, Besiktas, Fenerbahce, Genk, Standard, Anderlecht, KV Mechelen, Hajduk, Sparta Praha, FC Kobenhavn, PAOK, Lech Poznan & Wisla Krakow.

[gggfunk]

35 minutes ago, BadAss88 said:

I have a little () list for FM23:

England: Arsenal, Man City, Man Utd, Chelsea, Newcastle, Southampton, Aston Villa, West Ham, Burnley, QPR, Sheffield Wed & AFC Wimbledon.
Italy: Napoli, Atalanta, Udinese, Lazio, AC Milan, AS Roma, Inter, Juventus, Fiorentina, Sampdoria, Bari, Parma & Palermo,
Spain: Real Madrid, Barcelona, Atletico Madrid & Valencia.
Germany: Borussia Dortmund, RB Leipzig & Bayer Leverkusen.
France: Marseille, Monaco, Lyon, Rennes, Bordeaux & Caen.
Portugal: Benfica, Braga, Porto, Sporting CP & Vitoria Guimaraes.
Other: PSV, Ajax, Galatasaray, Besiktas, Fenerbahce, Genk, Standard, Anderlecht, KV Mechelen, Hajduk, Sparta Praha, FC Kobenhavn, PAOK, Lech Poznan & Wisla Krakow.

And I thought I'm the only one who would like to manage all the clubs in the world 😁

My "must do" saves at the moment are:

Arsenal / Barcelona / Zagłębie Lubin / Ajax Amsterdam / Southampton / Journeyman

Plus like 10 others that will come to my mind when the game is out...

Just wondering how I will find time to do all this 😁

[Hugs65]

I'm probably going to start in France and I've got a few teams in my mind :

Red Star FC - Popular save doing it every year

Le Havre - Also a popular one and they started to get back on track this year by appointing Matthieu Bodmer as a sporting director

Bordeaux - Fallen Giant good amount of exciting youngsters like Bakwa 

Pau FC - Just because they are the closest professional club from me besides Toulouse

Reims - Their recruitment is so so good many talented players joining the club

Edited September 20, 2022 by Hugs65

[nico_france]

For the managers who would like to discover France this year, you have 2 interesting challenges during the first season :

 

-For the current season in Ligue 1, 4 spots are exceptionnaly granted for the relegation at the end of the season (Ligue 1 will only have 18 clubs next season instead of 20 atm), so starting with a team like Ajaccio which has just gained promotion this year, could be a real challenge

-In Ligue 2, as a result, only 2 seats for promotion this year, instead of 3, with the 2 big French teams just relegated this year, Bordeaux and Saint Etienne, it could be fun

[dothestrand]

On 17/09/2022 at 20:40, Flash Gordon said:

I generally stay away from the English leagues as I find the Premier League to be so powerful that the game stops being enjoyable for me. Though I might be tempted by Sunderland if their young squad has as many high potential players as they should have. 

Other than that, I tend to follow a pretty familiar formula of taking a club from a lower European league as far as I can. In FM22 that was to win a Europa League and 10 League titles with Hammarby. 

In FM23, I'm tempted by bringing Wisla Krakow back from the 1st division, to the peak of Polish football and then seeing if I can compete in Europe. 

Another idea I have for a story is to make the once free territory of Trieste, one of the most important seaports of numerous empires a force in the footballing world by bringing Triestina to glory from Serie C in Italy, using a transfer strategy drawn from their historical allegiances and geographical location (Croatia, Slovenia, Austria, Hungary and Italy).

 

Trieste is a beautiful city so that's a good call. 

[Woolly]

May go for a LLM save this time, I've had fun getting Rochdale into the Premiership this year. Altrincham could be an interesting proposition as it's their first season as a professional club. Outside of that I may just select 3 countries and go for a rando team. Definitely not going for one of the big names as I've found they have becoe less of a challenge

[Bradz FM]

St Ettiene after their relegation.

 

Palermo now in Serie B and part of the City football group

 

[3maldini3]

Atalanta is a usual for me every year.

Napoli for sure this year.

[Muttley84]

Might skip on FM 23. But if I don't it s gonna be Messina for starters.

[canry]

PSV or Feyenoord

Braga

Galatasaray

Lens

Sociedad (only basque)

Werder or Schalke

[collisonmullan]

Been trying to figure out who my long term save should be and came across Royal Football Club de Liege in Belgiums third tier. The club has a lot of history having won the Belgium top tier 3 times before 1900 and twice more in the 50's, so historically one of the most successful teams in Belgium and if not for them refusing to release Jean-Marc Bosman in the 90's we wouldn't have the Bosman rule. I'm looking forward to doing a save with RFC Liege and making them relevant in this century. 

[wearesporting]

22 hours ago, Muttley84 said:

Might skip on FM 23. But if I don't it s gonna be Messina for starters.

I enjoyed a save with them only signing u23 Italians back in FM18 I think it was.

What draws you to them?

[Muttley84]

4 hours ago, wearesporting said:

I enjoyed a save with them only signing u23 Italians back in FM18 I think it was.

What draws you to them?

In each edition I do a save with a club from Mezzogiorno and try to achieve success by only using players fron the club' region. I tried it with Catanzaro (Calabria), Avellino (Campania) or Biscegle (Puglia). Only logical to try it in Sicily next and Messina are quite a rebuilding job (also dead last irl now).

[3maldini3]

On 25/09/2022 at 04:26, Muttley84 said:

In each edition I do a save with a club from Mezzogiorno and try to achieve success by only using players fron the club' region. I tried it with Catanzaro (Calabria), Avellino (Campania) or Biscegle (Puglia). Only logical to try it in Sicily next and Messina are quite a rebuilding job (also dead last irl now).

I think my best save ever was Catanzaro back in 2005 or 2004.

Giorgio Corona wouldn’t stop scoring there.

[DIESEL.be]

Thinking about doing a Venezia save. Overhaul the squad because there's not a lot of italian talent in there, get a good base ready and build from there. The boys are not doing too well in Serie B at the moment 

[Lesterfan_Cambiasso]

Im thinking South America could be something new for me.....

 

River Plate seem to be struggling domestically....must be reasons for this?

Ive had an enjoyable save in the past too with Universidad de Chile..... could be a team to revive perhaps?

 

Squads in these countries look so OLD, its crazy

[Flash Gordon]

I'll be adding Bursapor to my list I think. Turkey is a league I've never really got involved in. But 1 of the only 2 clubs outside of Istanbul to win the league now in the 3rd division sounds like the kind of rebuild that I can't resist. 

[Bradz FM]

Olympiacos could be fun.

 

James, Marcelo, M'Vila, Valbuena, Vrsaljko, Sokratis, Samasssekou, Pep Biel, Bakambu and Konrad de la Fuente at their disposal

[JawZy]

couple of teams on my radar that have not been mentioned yet

Denmark: Esbjerg, will be in the 3rd tier of danish football even though wre in top flight as recenty as 19/20

Saudi Arabia: Al-Ahli Saudi FC, will be in the second tier for the first ever time  won the top flight in 15/16

[GylfiAsCharged]

Scarborough Athletic appeals a lot to me as a long term building save this year. Newly promoted to the National League North, they are the phoenix club formed after Scarborough FC's dissolution in 2010, a club that spent the whole of the '90s in the Football League after Neil Warnock led them to promotion. Plus they play at the Flamingo Land Stadium which sounds like the kind of place I want to be.

[Sophos]

I've been enjoying Blackburn so far. Some fantastic prospects (Ashley Phillips and Adam Wharton in particular), a squad full of hard-working and technically rounded players, and an interesting dilemma with Brereton-Diaz wanting out.

[RandomGuy.]

As always, St Johnstone. 

A decades worth of success, including 2 Scottish Cups, and a cup double season, and about 6 forays into Europe, last seasons highlight drawing away to Galatasaray, been toppled as they narrowly escaped relegation last season through the play offs.

Sales/Loss of the majority of key players, added to a poorly built squad of ageing players, means the club is in desperate need of a rebuild.

One of the weakest sides in the division, with little (useful) pace in the squad and a collection of inconsistent strikers, the board expect a top 6 finish, so youll be under pressure quickly if you dont start well.

Add in how strong Rangers/Celtic/Aberdeen look, and the added threat of Hearts and Hibs, and its hard to pick up a meaningful run of results.

[ThanatosAFC]

Bayern & Liverpool for some beta fun. when the full release comes out  i might pick Leeds, Atalanta and PSV.

[Balotelli]

I've started a save as Benfica no surprise their team is full of potentially world class young players. And some more experienced older heads. Antonio Silva and Enzo Fernandez might be my new favorite players this year. And florentino Luis is a football manager legend.