Chris Fuller

Preparing for pre-season on Football Manager

Published on 18 December 202013 July 2026 by Chris Fuller

Pre-season is an often underrated but very important part of Football Manager. It’s during those first few weeks of a new campaign that you have arguably the best chance to set your team up for a successful year.

Your players will return from their post-season holidays refreshed but unfit. It’s up to you to sharpen them up physically and tactically through training and friendlies, so that they can perform to high standards from the first league game onwards. If you fail to prepare, you prepare to fail.

In this article, I will give you some tips for an effective pre-season, while also taking you through how I typically get ready for a new campaign. This isn’t a silver bullet that works for every team, but if you roughly follow my advice, you can’t go too far wrong.

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Setting up a new game on Football Manager

Published on 20 November 202013 July 2026 by Chris Fuller

Football Manager 2021 is being released in just a few days’ time. While thousands of FMers are already getting stuck into the beta, many of us are already thinking of what our first save game will be after the game officially drops on Tuesday 24 November.

There are a lot of questions we ask ourselves before creating a new football universe? How many leagues do I want? How many players? Can my computer cope with it? And, most importantly, will the game run fast enough for me to enjoy?

I hope this guide will give you some useful tips and advice for when you go into the save creation process.

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My plans for Football Manager 2021

Published on 9 November 202013 July 2026 by Chris Fuller

It’s almost time, folks! After what feels like an eternity, the Football Manager 2021 beta is expected to drop any moment now, which means we’ll soon be falling in love with our favourite game all over again.

With excitement levels now as high as they will be when they start allowing fans back into stadiums, I am now ready to formally announce my plans for FM21’s game cycle. As usual, I’m planning to have a short-term beta save, and then I will begin a long-term career after the game is officially released on 24 November.

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Retro Review: Giant Killers

Published on 4 November 20207 July 2026 by Chris Fuller

If you’ve followed Fuller FM for a while, you’ll know that every once in a while, I like to look at some football management games from outside of Sports Interactive’s catalogue. The quality doesn’t always compare well to Football Manager, but every now and then, a decent bargain comes along.

Today’s review is going to be a bit different from my previous ones. For starters, instead of reviewing a free-to-play or cheap alternative to FM, I’m going back over 20 years for my first ever Retro Review.

So what am I reviewing today? Ultimate Soccer Manager? Premier Manager? Unfortunately not, but once I can get my hands on one of those games, I’ll be sure to review them for you lot right here.

Instead, I’ve been playing a title that is rather less glamorous – and far more obscure – than its late-1990s adversaries. It’s time to look at Giant Killers.

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The Sporting Life: Where Did It All Go Wrong?

Published on 26 October 202010 July 2026 by Chris Fuller1 Comment

Welcome to what is – sadly – the final chapter of “A Sporting Life”. My Football Manager 2020 adventure has come to a bitter and premature end after a horrific second season – the conclusion of which you can read right here.

Today’s chapter will begin with a review of the 2020/2021 season. I’ll then go into more depth about where it all went pear-shaped for Sporting CP. There are a couple of areas I will focus on in particular…

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The Sporting Life: Season 2, Part 6

Published on 23 October 202010 July 2026 by Chris Fuller

Embed from Getty Images

I’m glad you could join me for the latest – and possibly last – chapter of my Sporting CP series on Football Manager 2020.

In case you missed Part 5, things have gone so badly over recent weeks that my job is now on the line as we head into the final two months of the season. We have seven games left to secure a top-three finish in the Primeira Liga (and a Champions League place) before finishing the campaign with the Taça de Portugal Final.

Failure is not an option. We must deliver.

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The Sporting Life: Season 2, Part 5

Published on 19 October 202010 July 2026 by Chris Fuller

I’m back once more with another chapter from my Sporting CP story. We’re heading into the business end of the season, but if you want to catch up first, you can read Part 4 using the link provided.

Today’s chapter will begin with a round-up of the January transfer window, followed by all our results from February and March – including the Taça de Portugal Semi Final against Marítimo.

We’ll also welcome in a new youth intake right at the end. Judging by the preview above, we probably shouldn’t expect a golden generation…

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The Sporting Life: Season 2, Part 4

Published on 16 October 202010 July 2026 by Chris Fuller

I’m now into the 10th chapter of my Sporting CP adventure, but the last 18 months in Lisbon have really turned my mind into scrambled eggs. I feel like I’ve tried almost every tactical trick in the book to get this team firing consistently, particularly in the last installment!

But as 2020 nears its conclusion and 2021 approaches, it seems that Sporting have hit some good mid-season form at last. We’re still fighting hard in all four competitions, and today’s chapter could end with us winning the Taça da Liga. Can we pull it off?

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The Sporting Life: Season 2, Part 3

Published on 12 October 202010 July 2026 by Chris Fuller

I’m back with another chapter of my Sporting CP story… and things aren’t going too well. While it hasn’t quite been 84 years since the Leões scored before half-time, we haven’t exactly given our fans much joy in the opening stages of this season.

In case you missed it, you can revisit Part 2 using the link provided. There, I go into more detail about our results from the past two months – including our historically bad record at starting matches.

Today’s post will recap our results on October and November, where the focus is mainly on the Europa League. We start off by travelling to Vienna for the second time in less than two months. Maybe Thursday night football will mean at least something to our opponents?

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The Sporting Life: Season 2, Part 2

Published on 9 October 202010 July 2026 by Chris Fuller

“Olá” again, folks. Are you ready for another installment of my Sporting CP adventure?

In the previous chapter, we met all our new summer signings and went through a productive (and very goal-happy) pre-season campaign. Today, we’ll progress through the first the first two months of the season proper, which includes the Champions League qualifiers. Can we secure a place amongst Europe’s elite?

(By the way, I hope some of you like that little Ultravox reference in the image above. You can probably tell that my graphics skills are steadily getting better…)

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