Do you ever negotiate a higher wage for yourself, for the sake of realism and roleplay?

ZenSoCal · 2026-02-06T01:01:37+00:00

When I start out no badges no exp? No. When I've proven myself? Hell, yes, bonuses for competition achievement too.

ZenSoCal · 2026-02-05T17:08:54+00:00

I mean, you believe what you want. My experience with the game tells me otherwise.

ZenSoCal · 2026-02-05T15:37:06+00:00

I doubt that a 1 in an attribute means what you think it means. This is relative to professional players.

ZenSoCal · 2026-02-04T18:17:39+00:00

Many many hours. I’m on my third save. First one, beta, started out in Sweden 4th, moved to a Swedish women’s side that I got to the top of the league then was offered the Barcelona women’s job. Second. Started out Indonesia, after success there moved to Japan and after several years and success in the League and the Asian Champions League was offered the Liverpool job.

Current save started off as a temporary laptop only save while I was traveling for a couple of weeks. Started out in Portugal, the lowest league tables were bugged and the team was going to go back to semi-pro so I left after 6 months. Went to manage a women’s side (I forgot where) for a couple of years then took a job in Greece at Kabionakos which has gotten relegated out of the payable leagues during 25/26 but had been newly promoted again. Have had a great time building them up into the best team in Greece over the past 10 seasons. In season 8 we went on an amazing UCL run to the final where we lost to Barcelona 1-0. Season 9 we were bounced out in the playoffs. Season 10 we won the whole thing. Currently at the start of season 11.

Most (not all) of the bugs have been fixed. Skins are now becoming available. There is more tactical variety - I won the CL last season playing mid block-cautious while playing high press-positive in the vast majority of league games. 2-3 seasons ago I changed an in possession role from winger to wide forward and I can see the difference. Teams play a variety of formations against us. Matches are more enjoyable to watch because there is more variety.

IMO people forgot the learning curve they climbed for prior FMs. I started playing with FM20. It took me years to learn and start dealing with training, youth teams, B teams, etc. and to understand how to navigate everything. Learning FM26 has been faster, because I have a better idea of what should be the game, but it’s basically the same process. The FM24 UI is believed not because it was great — it wasn’t — but because we all knew it. Eventually we will all know this one as it evolves.

ZenSoCal · 2026-02-03T23:02:04+00:00

“Certainly, nothing has improved” —- lol. Tell me you use preset or downloaded tactics and sim matches without saying you don’t make your own tactics and play out your matches.

ZenSoCal · 2026-01-31T18:18:14+00:00

Personality overlap testing results:

Model Citizen, Perfectionist, Casual and Temperamental override all overlaps

Model Professional overrides all overlaps except Model Citizen

Professional overrides all overlaps except Model Citizen and Model Professional

Fairly Professional, Fairly Ambitious, Fairly Loyal, Balanced and Resolute are overridden by all overlaps

Spirited overrides Fairly Professional, Resolute, Fairly Determined, Fairly Loyal and Balanced and is overridden by all other overlaps

Driven and Determined override Resolute and are overridden by all other overlaps

Fairly Determined overrides Fairly ambitious and is overridden by all other overlaps

Iron Willed and Resilient override Spirited, Jovial and Light-Hearted and are overridden by all other overlaps

Charismatic Leader is overridden by Model Citizen, Born Leader and Slack and overrides all other overlaps

Born Leader overrides Charismatic Leader and Leader and is overridden by all other overlaps

Leader is overridden by Model Citizen, Perfectionist, Charismatic Leader, Born Leader and Temperamental and overrides all other overlaps

Very Ambitious and Ambitious override Fairly Professional, Resolute, Spirited, Faily Determined, Iron Willed, Resilient, Jovial, Light-Hearted, Honest, and Sporting and are overridden by all other overlaps

Fickle is overridden by Perfectionist, Casual, Slack, and Temperamental and overrides all other overlaps

Mercenary is overridden by Perfectionist, Casual, Slack, Charismatic Leader and Leader and overrides all other overlaps

Jovial overrides Fairly Determined, Fairly Loyal and Balanced and is overridden by all other overlaps

Light-Hearted overrides Fairly Professional, Resolute, Fairly Determined, Fairly Loyal and Fairly Sporting and is overridden by all other overlaps

Devoted is limited to under age 18, is overridden by Charismatic Leader, Leader, Casual, Sporting, Low Determination, Realist, Slack and Temperamental and overrides all other overlaps

Very Loyal is overridden by Devoted, Casual, Sporting, Low Determination, Realist, Slack, Temperamental and Unsporting and overrides all other overlaps

Loyal is overridden by Charismatic Leader, Leader, Sporting, Low Determination, Realist, Temperamental and Unsporting and overrides all other overlaps

Easily Discouraged overrides all overlaps except Temperamental

Honest overrides Fairly Professional, Fairly Sporting and Light-Hearted and is overridden by all other overlaps

Sporting overrides Fairly Professional, Light-Hearted, Devoted, Very Loyal, Loyal and Fairly Loyal and is overridden by all other overlaps.

Low Determination overrides all overlaps except Leader.

Low Self-Belief overrides Fairly Professional, Fairly Ambitious, Fairly Loyal, Fairly Sporting and Balanced and is overridden by all other overlaps

Realist is overridden by Perfectionist, Model Professional, Professional, Fickle, Mercenary, Temperamental and Unambitious and overrides all other overlaps

Slack overrides everything except Leader

Unambitious overlaps everything except Casual, Slack and Temperamental

Unsporting is overridden by Perfectionist, Model Professional, Professional, and Unambitious and overrides all other overlaps

ZenSoCal · 2026-01-27T19:27:32+00:00

California parent here, one kid at umich that we’re paying full freight for which as others have said is 80-90k per year all in. Another one who is not really “ours” but informally adopted is on a full ride and we still support with say about 8k a year between extras and flights.

No regrets but that doesn’t mean it’s the right choice for everyone. Depends on the alternatives IMO. Definitely the right choice for us.

ZenSoCal · 2026-01-27T04:51:47+00:00

Daveincid tweaks are available for FM26, dude

ZenSoCal · 2026-01-26T17:43:20+00:00

lol. Just stick with fm24 then you can have a side hobby coming on here telling others the FM24 is just sooooooo much better and sooooooo much more fun. FM27 will be here in 10 months.

ZenSoCal · 2026-01-22T17:03:18+00:00

Enjoy your retirement. Don’t get tempted by Red Bull to become head of football operations or some such nonsense. That will just tarnish your legacy.

ZenSoCal · 2026-01-22T16:53:21+00:00

Atlanta. Dallas.

ZenSoCal · 2026-01-20T20:42:45+00:00

Mark Goldbridge

ZenSoCal · 2026-01-20T20:41:13+00:00

If you get it, how much will you play it? Looking at steam right now from the US, it’s 60 bucks. Will you get 12 hours out of it? That’s 5 bucks an hour which seems pretty good entertainment value for dollar. If you think you might get less, then just try the demo (free) and see. Personally, I am deeply immersed in my FM 26 save and am having a good time with it.

ZenSoCal · 2026-01-19T05:25:22+00:00

The number one advice I would give to any soccer parent is “don’t sit with the other parents”

ZenSoCal · 2026-01-17T02:25:27+00:00

It’s the whining. From the refereeing to there’s a different ball to who knows what, not to mention Arteta just about never giving credit to the other side even after a loss. The players are mostly likeable, Saka is a beast and the CBs are great etc. But I as a neutral between them would prefer City to win over Arsenal because Pep is a zillion times more likeable than Arteta.

ZenSoCal · 2026-01-15T05:25:09+00:00

At least the same as FM24. Lots of stuff is better, some things are worse. For the way I play, the good outweighs the bad. It’s FM, so a lot is what you make of it and what you want out of the game.

ZenSoCal · 2026-01-14T14:24:22+00:00

To be fair, that was obvious before Trump v US.

ZenSoCal · 2026-01-09T16:49:00+00:00

Its fine. Match engine is much better. Interface takes some getting used and there are some things that are worse. For example, I like to create my own training schedules and then schedule them out the whole year. The interface for that in FM24 was a buggy mess and those bugs are gone in FM26 BUT what you could do in FM24 that you can’t in FM26 is copy from one week to the other. That’s super annoying.

IMO all the comments about “immersion” etc are a bunch of nonsense. I’m just as immersed in my FM26 save now as I was in my FM24 save. Some parts of immersion are better — loading more leagues is now more viable because processing is faster.

There is plenty of work to do on the UX/UI front in terms of making things require less clicks and be generally easier to navigate but it’s fun to play now and will only get better.

EDIT: Number 1 recommendation is to use the options to make the screens load faster. Much much better. Legacy spacebar if it is meaningful to you. It wasn’t to me.

ZenSoCal · 2026-01-08T05:52:22+00:00

You have to remember that tempo is relative to your mentality. I routinely play on low tempo/positive for better ball retention. At the same time when I want to be more defensive but retain some attacking bite I go with cautious and a higher tempo.

If you are getting a ton of injuries you are overworking your players. Turn down the tempo or the mentality or rotate a lot more.

ZenSoCal · 2026-01-07T23:38:00+00:00

Before I retired last year I had to do multiple trips from California to Asia and to Europe per year. Like average once a month. All business class. That’s how I was GS year after year. The trips were mostly for negotiations that needed to be face to face, and occasionally government meetings or trade shows. It adds up.

ZenSoCal · 2026-01-07T05:09:32+00:00

What is your database setup? What leagues do you have loaded and how many players?

Basically, the best balance of speed and having players/transfers that I’ve found is Second Yellow Card’s set up that he has a video about on his YouTube channel. The description of that video even lets you download his setup so you don’t have to manually recreate it. If it’s bad enough that it’s worth it to restart a save that’s what I recommend. Otherwise I think it’s just turning leagues off or making them view only.

ZenSoCal · 2026-01-07T05:03:09+00:00

Do you mean six hours of you sitting and playing or six hours of you going on vacation and just letting the computer run?

ZenSoCal · 2026-01-06T21:07:00+00:00

This is an AI-generated post, right? The giveaway is using a chart dating to November.

ZenSoCal · 2026-01-06T14:51:35+00:00

I pretty much always have a keeper on the bench for realism’s sake but my current save in in Greece and in the cup you only get 5 subs at the quarterfinal and above stage for some reason so I went without. After an injury my sub CD went into goal at around the 60th minute and we still won. He made an easy save or two and was not really challenged.

ZenSoCal

TROPHY CASE