Most surprising clubs to have climbed up the ranks in your saves? And most surprising big clubs to fall?

[Stone Cold]

I'm not asking you about that time you lead a 4th division Swedish club to Champions League glory. But clubs that have gotten much bigger or smaller when controlled by the AI.

Going way back to Championship Manager 00/01, the following things happened at my 10 season save at Benfica and Roma:

- Sporting got relegated to the 2nd tier of Portuguese football and didn't get promoted again.

- Celtic won the Champions League.

- Brondby won the Champions League even though I didn't have Denmark loaded.

 

In FM 11, Sp. Gijón won La Liga a few times in my 17 season long save at Beira-Mar and became the biggest club in Spain.

 

In one of my FM22 saves several strange things happened in Portugal:

- Lusitânia Lourosa and Vilafranquense reached the 1st tier of Portuguese football and never got relegated. I'm not even sure if either of these clubs ever played in the Primeira Liga in their entire history.

- Estrela da Amadora and Gil Vicente both reached Conference League finals and became sides that regularly finished in the top 5.

- Porto practically became a mid-table side and developed competitive rivalries with Estrela da Amadora and Gil Vicente due to fighting with them for the 4th and 5th places.

 

In FM23, in my current Celtic save, Rosenborg fell to the 2nd tier of Norwegian football just 2 seasons in. I wonder what happened...

Also, Charleroi won the Belgian league on the 2nd season and finished 9th on the 3rd season. 

 

That's all I remember. 

[Thebaker]

I can't remember my previous fm saves although i'm sure it happened. On FM23 i have nearly led a 4th division swedish side to CL glory by 2049.

Freiburg have firmly established themselves as the biggest club in germany, finishing no lower than 6th in the previous 22 years. Seemingly without a tycoon takeover as well.

Generally all the big clubs have continued to win and do well esp in europe, only 6 teams have won the CL. Conf league had a few swedish clubs win it and Ludogrets from Bulgaria.

Even in sweden no club apart from mine has played in the top flight and started below the 2nd flight.

I have the big 5 and the scandinavian leagues loaded, Roma and Genoa are the biggest and most successful clubs in Italy currently, Molde in Norway are in the 3rd flight.

Edited October 8, 2023 by Thebaker

[gunner86]

In FM12 my biggest rivals for the Prem became Reading, while Spurs and Chelsea became relegation battlers, with the former actually dropping to the championship for a couple of years.

Lyon and Marseille were the other most dominant sides in Europe.

[Dagenham_Dave]

In an FM14 save I had, Leicester were in the Conference North for a season around 10 seasons into the game. 

[Thebaker]

1 hour ago, Dagenham_Dave said:

In an FM14 save I had, Leicester were in the Conference North for a season around 10 seasons into the game. 

that sort of thing used to happen all the time, usually Bolton, with the money now it never happens in England

[maxi7]

I think I'd say FM13ish. The big breakthrough was Ascoli in Italy, they had a tycoon and they used to win title after title and frequent last 4 of the UCL.

It gets tougher now in England, only really clubs in L1,L2 drop all the way down. Premier League is practically just a yo-yo now, so even 20-30 years in it's practically close to the same 20 bar one or two. 

[kenpet]

In FM 2012 or so really strange things happened in season 2: West Ham won the Premier League, and Bologna won Serie A - in the same season. Fulham went from PL to National League after 10 seasons or so.

About Rosenborg, it's common in my saves that they get relegated after 2 seasons or 3. May seem unrealistic, but this season they're only 6 points above the qualification place, and 8 points above relegation. So it may happen irl, however there are only 6 games remaining so they will probably stay up. 

[GCVS00]

In my FM23 Parma Save in 2059, Koln have won the Bundesliga a bunch of times, and Stuttgart have won a Champions League. Tycoon-owned Sheffield United have won the UCL twice and Tycoon-Owned Almeria have won La Liga a bunch too. Interestingly, Levante have transformed into a perennial top 4 side in Spain without any tycoon investment, super impressive. And Lyon have become a power house in Ligue 1 due to two incredible players from their academy