Breaking FM: Anger Management

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Welcome back to Fuller FM. I’ll be starting a new Football Manager 2024 story in the coming weeks – but in the meantime, I’ve got something a bit different to tide you over.

Breaking FM is my occasional mini-series where I take Football Manager to the extreme and see how the game handles ridiculous scenarios. I ran my first experiment on FM23 last spring, when I took an all-star Dagenham & Redbridge team through the longest season possible in English football – 100 matches in barely 11 months. You can read Part 1 and Part 2 to see how that unfolded.

Only about seven people read the first Breaking FM, but I enjoyed making it, and I always wanted to come back to it on FM24 with another cunning plan.

So now it’s time for some anger management… literally. Today, I will channel my inner José Mourinho – and become the angriest, harshest, intolerant, most violent and most downright dislikeable manager football has ever seen! How far can I go before I lose the dressing room? Continue reading “Breaking FM: Anger Management”

Breaking FM: The Longest Season – Part 2

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Welcome back to Breaking FM, where my aim is to take Football Manager 2023 to the limits – and see how it can cope with extreme (and extremely unrealistic) situations.

For the first experiment of this series, I will find out what happens if a team in the English league system played the maximum number of games in a single season. This includes ALL league games, play-offs, cup ties (including replays), and even European and intercontinental fixtures!

The club I have chosen for this experiment is Dagenham & Redbridge. In Part 1, I explained how the experiment would work, which involved beefing up the Daggers squad, and giving them two seasons to qualify for every possible competition, so that their 2024/2025 season can become the longest one ever.

But Part 2 is where the fun really happens! In this post, I will go through the entire 2024/2025 season, in which the Daggers are aiming to play 99 games of football. We’ll see if FM23 can cope with scheduling so many matches, or if it will all fall to pieces… Continue reading “Breaking FM: The Longest Season – Part 2”

Breaking FM: The Longest Season – Part 1

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Welcome to the first installment of a brand new mini-series here on Fuller FM.

In Breaking FM, I will be pushing Football Manager to its limits, seeing how well (or otherwise) the game handles extreme scenarios. I’m not sure if this will become a regular series on the blog, but if you enjoy reading this, then who knows?

For my first attempt at breaking FM, I will take over a team in the English leagues and manipulate their results, so that they play the maximum number of games in a season. Chelsea currently hold the record, playing 69 matches during the 2012/2013 season… but that’s not even close to the number I have in mind!

This first chapter explains how my experiment will work. I’ve worked out the maximum games a team can play, and how long it will take to get them into every available competition at the same time. Then it’s just a case of finding a club, assembling a team, and setting everything up for the longest season ever. Continue reading “Breaking FM: The Longest Season – Part 1”