Football Manager 26

Have to question how bad must the game have been last year to get cancelled if this is the replacement? I get they need to move forward with the new engine which I'm sure will produce a good game in time, but the UI they have come up with just doesn't work. Feels like they've made a console game and have tried to make it work for PC. Far too many clicks needed to get to the page you want, I'm hoping the skin modders can work some magic over the next few months and sort it out!

I've only played it for 2/3 hours last night but that was initial thoughts, will give it a good play this weekend.

 

Same as you, drew the first game 1-1, put my laptop to sleep and the game has crashed now.

Will probably go a super power like PSG, Real Madrid now for the beta, see if I can get something going and working tactic wise.

 

Started a new save with Boca Juniors, was half enjoying it and then all of a sudden my continue button just totally stopped working so I can't progress.

I can accept bugs with an FM Beta, we've all played enough of them over the years, but this is a total mess.

 

It's 'ok', 6/10 at very best, although I have been enjoying a save.

When you go in depth, there are still quite a few bugs and still lots of important stuff that's been taken out of the game. The major update was a big improvement, but I feel like there should have been a follow up update by now? All seems to have gone a bit quiet and Miles Jacobson has gone into hiding after approving the release of this game!

 

I'm enjoying it the more I play it. My bugs experience wasn't as bad as others during the beta. There's definitely a game in there, it just needs some major fleshing out as the UI is just shite. I thought it was made for console users and brought to PC, but looking at the console UI it's even worse looking. Dunno if anyone caught Miles' GQ interview, but basically it sounded like they properly start working on FM26 in February with just the barely passable parts of the failed FM25 in place.

I like the match engine, that's really an improvement. I know they confirmed they did absolutely nothing to the match, but I miss shouts. It feels like you are still a bit more involved in the game and the only thing i don't like about this new engine is that you don't have much input during the match. Most knew it would be a shit show for a good few months until it's properly developed and the bugs are more ironed out, but i expected more comms and visibility from SI. They should have aimed for at least a weekly big fix for the first few weeks out the gate and communicated it properly to let the community know the frustrations are targeted, but it's just silence until an update is coming. It feels like everything that was useful is now an extra 3 or 4 clicks away in another area.

Hopefully some nonsense with the UI gets sorted soon. It's kinda hindering progressing through the game too. I started with no badges no reputation and my first role is at Alfreton. I'm in my second season now, still in the NLN but i'm 2 points clear at the top and just won in the FA cup first round, got one badge, studying for the next and my reputation has grown so i had a look at jobs and Northampton are 24th in L2, so i applied. They turned me down for the reason that "i don't make the most of set pieces and have no clear set piece plan" or something on those lines...... but I had to delegate set pieces to my coaches because whenever I set my set piece plan up, as soon as the game starts all my set pieces tactics are wiped away and it goes to defaults. So I literally cant set out a set piece plan. Scouting seems really hit and miss too, sometimes if i set an age limit of like 23, it will still bring back 34 year olds. If i ask it to find players with CBs attributes, it will set them to the GK attributes. And if you set a list of say 20 players to the scout pool to look at, it only delegates them to the chief scout rather than the pool and takes ages so you have to set them to each scout separately. If you climb a place in the table, it actually shows a red down arrow next to the team that climbed as it did to me when i "dropped a spot into first place" as the post-match email said.

 

The recruitment focus issue is the reason why I haven't started a main save yet, stockpiling all the best 19 year olds and becoming Europe's best. I'm also surprised that they haven't yet put out a data update, for example Sheffield Wednesday starting on -12.

 

It has been noticeably better in the last week or so since the last update, still a very buggy UI but the gameplay is smoother. There's still leaps and bounds to go with it but each week is getting there. The transfers and wages are daft in it as the seasons are going on, I'm going onto my 3rd season now and it's obviously broken. Top teams in the prem have many guys on 500k a week, especially guys going from Saudi back to a normal league seem to be on Saudi money at average clubs and transfers of 180-200m seem to be normal. But the money code filters down the leagues too, so in mine there are 11 clubs in the Champ who have players on over 100k a week. In L1, there are 7 teams with players on over 25k a week.

City sold Neufville in the summer of 2026 to Middlesborough for £7.5m after 5 goals and 7 assists in L1, just daft UI transfers. Then Boro sold him this summer I'm in now to Southampton after 3 sub appearances in the CH for £2.75m. Tyreik went to Barnsley for £1.5m in the Jan just gone and didn't play, he's now transfer listed for £2m . Stevenage in L2 signed a striker from Bulgaria for £6m in the summer on £20k a week in L2 and now when you check the club status it says they are under embargo for breaches, looks like the daft data is going to send them into administration.

 

I usually do that every year but with a discount code i found online and a voucher i had from a refund through the shop, i managed to get FM26 for £28..... even that's looking like too much at the minute!! Gateshead were always my go-to for the cheaper copy, for some reason they were always quick out the traps with the release of the newer game compared to the rest of the clubs.

 

I've just beaten Bradford Park Avenue in a pre-season friendly.

Bradford (PA) 0 v BCAFC 5

I've never played it before, or any other football manager games on my XBOX series X.

It comes free on the games pass that I have.

 

I don't know about anyone else but the players seem to pick up injuries very quickly, I can't seem to go by a week without an injury of at least a couple of weeks out. I signed Jaden Heskey on loan on winter deadline day, the next day he did his ACL and so now he's out for 9 months.
Also at the start of the game both Pattison and Baldwin on my save decided they were unhappy at the club less than a week into pre-season and for some reason Sarcevic is transfer listed at the start.
I've also found that nearly every game in December and January has a snowy pitch.

Overall I am getting used to the new layout and like the game especially the new tactics.

 

You have to make sure you select Women's leagues to 'none' when starting a new game, as like you I don't want them running for processing speed.

 

Any data packs working well? I've not modded it in the slightest yet as they are seemingly patching bits at a weekly rate (or so they promise), I haven't looked into adding anything like realistic youth or name fixes that kinda thing whilst they are bug fixing.

 

The womens thing can be annoying. I had the shock of my life in my current save, i was doing well with Barnsley, in the top slots in L1 and all of a sudden I had an interview request in my mailbox for the Liverpool job! Wasn't until the objectives questions to survive relegation and the budgets questions came through that I realised it was the women's team.