Football Manager is the most realistic sports simulation video game out there. We all know that. But it’s not perfect.
In recent versions of FM, and especially on Football Manager 2024, there have been some wonky game mechanics that often lead to unrealistic player development and transfers. Whether it’s talented players being stuck in the job centre for ages, or their clubs refusing to send them out on loan, you can find loads of weird cases of ‘FM Logic’ on your saves.
Here are just some of the examples I’ve found on my current save with Nacka FC.
ON THE SCRAPHEAP
First off… we’ve all been there. We’ve all had those underrated gems who play brilliantly for your team as you rise through the leagues together. Then you outgrow those players, you reluctantly let them go… and they never play competitive football again.
I’ve had this a few times already at Nacka. For the first three years of my save, Yusupha Jammeh was often my go-to man – getting plenty of goal contributions from the right wing. The pacey wideman was brilliant in getting us promoted from Division 2, and he was still pretty good when we were promoted again from the Ettan Norra.
Unfortunately, Jammeh’s limited technical abilities put me off signing him to a professional contract in the Superettan. He became a free agent, but couldn’t find another club and eventually retired a year later at the age of just 26. What a waste.
In real-life, I’m sure plenty of Division 2 clubs would have been clamouring to sign a winger with a proven track record at that level.
But on FM, there was pretty much zero interest in Jammeh. I suspect that his reputation was too high – or perhaps not high enough – which put off any would-be suitors at his level. More likely, his wage demands were unrealistic for that level, even after several months as a free agent. And so Yusupha stopped playing football at an age when he should’ve been in his prime.
When lower-league AI clubs are looking for players to sign, they should at least consider players who’ve previously performed brilliantly at that level – whether they were managed by a human or not.
But even if clubs are interested in your ex-players, that doesn’t mean they will go out and sign them. This is the sad story of Nacka FC’s record goalscorer, Albin Rickborg.
Rickborg was a (usually) prolific striker over the course of five seasons, even in the Superettan. By the end of his time with us, Albin had scored 61 goals in all competitions – 58 in the league. I only released him at the end of the 2029 season because he wanted an unrealistic pay rise… and it appears he never backed down on his wage demands.
Unlike Jammeh, there were LOADS of lower-league teams wanting to sign Rickborg… but none of them ever offered him a firm contract. He stubbornly remained a free agent for TWO years straight, as his attributes withered away until he was basically useless.
I even looked into bringing him back to Nacka, just so he wouldn’t disappear from the game. Unfortunately, he wouldn’t even discuss a contract with us because he had “only recently left the club” – even if “recently” was almost two years in the past!
And then, on Boxing Day 2031, Albin Rickborg finally retired – also at the age of 26.
As Sheena Easton once sang in the 1980s, you can lead a horse to water but you cannot make him drink. Yet it’s still hugely dispiriting to see your favourite players end their careers with such an anti-climax, and I wish FM would do more to keep them in the game.
BACK TO AFRICA
This might sound a tad controversial, but hear me out. I’ve noticed in recent years that if you’re trying to loan or sell a mid-level player with a dual nationality, you will often only receive offers from clubs in that nation.
For example, if your player has North Macedonian or Albanian as their second nationality, they’re bound to end up in North Macedonia or Albania one day. I have noticed, though, that issue is particularly prevalent with players who have an African dual nationality.
I first came across this during my Arsenal youth challenge on Football Manager 2022. I would often receive loan offers from Ghanaian clubs for Charles Sagoe, and Nigerian clubs would take an interest in players like Nathan Butler-Oyedeji and Ovie Ejeheri. All three of those lads were born and raised in London.
It’s been particularly prevalent on my Nacka save. When I wanted to get rid of Saikou Jawneh – a Gambian defensive midfielder who had lived in Sweden for the past decade – the only club that was even interested in signing him was Gambia Armed Forces FC.
Several years later, my Guinean/Swedish centre-back Mohammed Bangoura was offered a contract by Hafia FC – one of the biggest clubs in Guinea… and he accepted it.
Bangoura was born in Sweden and had seemingly lived there his entire life. Why would a 23-year-old professional footballer leave a decent second-division club in his homeland, and move 8,000 miles to play in a weaker league?
Oh, right. That’s a hefty pay rise, to be fair. But that doesn’t mean I completely understand.
As far as I know, this quirk only affects players at a certain talent level – roughly League Two or National League quality. More talented players will get more realistic offers from other clubs in your nation, so Manchester United managers shouldn’t expect Hearts of Oak to make an approach for Kobbie Mainoo any time soon.
But however you look at it, this feels a bit odd. The optics of sending a talented sportsperson from a wealthy European nation to a less developed African country just because his parents came from there… it’s all a bit accidental Farage, isn’t it?
That’s NOT to say that this should NEVER happen. There’s something romantic about the fact that Belgium right-back Anthony Vanden Borre ended his career in DR Congo (where he was born), playing for TP Mazembe. But these events happen less frequently in real-life than they do on FM, so this could do with a bit of fine-tuning.
RIGID PROMISES
I’m staying with the Mohammed Bangoura example on this one. Earlier in the season, Bangoura – who had hardly played in the first few weeks – spoke to me asking for more first-team football. I agreed to give him some more gametime, so I did… and he played well when he was given those opportunities.
Unfortunately, Bangoura also happened to be in the final year of his contract. Six months out from expiry, he was approached by Hafia FC.
I would have offered Mo a new contract as soon as Hafia made their move… except I couldn’t. Bangoura said he wasn’t interested in entering contract discussions because “I’m waiting on the fulfillment of your promise before considering my future”.
Roughly 48 hours later, he considered his future and signed a pre-contract agreement with Hafia. I was so frustrated with him that I used the ‘Sell Now’ option to send him to Guinea immediately on a free transfer.
Those are, unfortunately, the risks you take when making promises to your players. You are expected to keep to them, after all. But I was already making good progress towards keeping Bangoura’s progress, and our relationship was ‘Very Close’.
My point is that FM’s promise mechanic is far too rigid. It is outrageous that you can lose a player on a free transfer simply because they cannot wait a few more weeks or months to see if you keep a promise! Surely when this situation happens, you could have the option to talk to your player about the promise – and perhaps ask them to drop it so you can discuss a new contract with them?
And one more thing. In some cases, an AI-managed player whose contract is due to expire within the next six months will refuse to open contract talks with your club specifically because they want to “keep [their] options open” until the end of the season. Why does this also not apply to YOUR players when AI clubs are interested in signing them?
NO LOAN AGAIN (NATURALLY)
The AI is still diabolically bad at developing its youth players. Far too often, young prospects over the age of 18 are left to rot in the development or reserve teams for years – and they rarely get sent out on loan, if at all. Inevitably, their progress stagnates, and their potential is wasted by their mid-20s.
It’s so frustrating to see so many of my former Nacka loanees wither away after a productive stint at the Fisksätra. There’ve been a few stars – like winger Winston Svensson Johansson – whom I would have loved to loan in again, but FM24 makes this nigh-on impossible.
Whenever you try to extend a loan for a second season or bring back a former loanee, their club will say that they feel the player “should be tested in a different environment”. You can make a loan offer to them, but even offering to pay 100% of their wages and an extra £5million per month will probably not be enough.
Likewise, you can wait for a few years to bring the player back, and you’ll still get that ridiculous message. Two full seasons have passed since I last had Winston on loan, in which he has made a grand total of NINE league appearances for Västerås. He’s clearly not getting the game time he needs at Västerås, but they won’t ever loan him out again… at least not to us.
It’s a stupid game mechanic, but I know why it exists. In previous FMs, it was far too easy to loan in good young players for multiple seasons in a row, and then eventually sign them for free when their contracts expired. That was an exploit which SI needed to deal with – and just like with SO MANY bug fixes, they have overcorrected and gone too far the other way.
Compared to real-life, there are very few loan deals in the lower leagues on FM24. I reckon that’s mostly because top clubs won’t lend their brightest talents on the cheap… but it hardly helps matters when there’s such a ridiculous mechanic that was built purely to frustrate the person playing this game.
RIGID PROMISES (AGAIN)
Even when you can bring a player in on loan, you may need to make some promises to their club get the deal through. These usually include contributing to the player’s wages (fair enough), giving them the game time worthy of a ‘Star Player’ or ‘Important Player’ (fair enough), or playing them in a specific position (I’m sounding like Mikaeli now).
I’m fine with committing to playing a talented youngster regularly in their chosen position… but it really does annoy me when clubs also insist on their talents playing in one specific role – and one specific role ONLY.
I can maybe understand if you’re managing a club like Arsenal, and you don’t want any Championship clubs to ruin Ethan Nwaneri by playing him as a Ball-Winning Midfielder. Use him as an Inside Forward or Inverted Winger, or don’t bother. But would you really care if your No Nonsense Centre-Back is playing as a Central Defender instead?
In the 2031 season, I loaned in a promising centre-back from Häcken named Erik Melin. Häcken wanted me to play him as a No-Nonsense Centre-Back, so I did… for the first few months anyway. Then I made some tactical tweaks to try and improve our defence, and tried out Melin as a Central Defender. He was fine.
But Häcken’s manager was not fine. He was constantly asking me why I wasn’t telling his 20-year-old kid to play like Terry Butcher. I reluctantly moved him back to an NCB role… but the moment I used him as a CD again, the Häcken was in my ear again yelling, “DON’T YOU DARE DO THAT!”
Fine, Samuel Wowoah. Have it your way. After his final warning, I made sure I played Melin as an NCB for the next two matches…
…and then, two games before the end of the season, Häcken recalled him anyway.
Once again, promises are too strict on FM. AI managers need to be at least a little flexible with regards to promises. They should certainly be more willing to let their players play – and not yoink them way from you for stupid reasons when the season is almost over!
I hope that most (if not all) of these issues are fixed on the next Football Manager… whenever that comes out.
If you have more examples like those I’ve discussed above, please feel free to share them. You can leave a comment below, and you can also find me on Threads and/or BlueSky.
And who knows? Perhaps I might turn this into a series of posts, showcasing more examples of weird Football Manager logic. Watch this space.
Fuller FM 