After three years and 12 seasons, crossing from South America to England, Spain, Turkey, Italy, Scotland, France, South Africa, Portugal, Germany and back to England once again, it's time to bid farewell to The Football Manager Football Show.

Like Arsenal's bid to become Premier League champions and Jurgen Klopp's reign at perennial contenders Liverpool, all good things must come to an end and having seen Shane secure a Premier League trophy - his first league title since Galatasary (if you don't count South Africa) - and Ken being crowned Champions League winner for the first time since his season 4 victory with Real Madrid, we're saying goodbye to the Troy Parrotts, Harvey Barnes, Fabio Silvas and more of this world.

What started as a two-man journey through the world of Football Manager 2021, 2022, 2023 and now 2024 thanks to this iteration's ability to port a save and ultimately our universe, ends as a two-man journey that's come full circle in a way.

In this episode, we're sharing a few moments, a few highlights, and signing off in good spirits as we pave the way for more podcast fun in the future.

To all who've joined us on this adventure since January 2021, going from tens of downloads a week to hundreds and thousands, we hope you've enjoyed the craic, the games, the abuse, the insights, the mental torture, anguish and everything else that comes with this game we love. We're still playing, Shane's spending some time back in 2022, Ken's off to crack the MLS at long last and we'll cross paths again soon.

To every listener, regular and one-off, thanks a million for fuelling our love of the game and here's to whatever the future brings for Football Manager.

The blog will be getting an update shortly with more notes, standouts and musings, plus if you're new to the podcast, you've got THREE WHOLE YEARS of content to lend your ears to with different stories and adventures to take in, that collection's going nowhere.

You can still email us - podcast@fmfshow - or

• Follow Ken @tacticalmanager with some new posts waiting in the wings over at thetacticalmanager.com. You'll also hear Ken weekly on the Ken On Food podcast with a new full season of interviews on the way.
• Follow Shane @sirsok1, and hear him on The Wrestling Fan Wrestling Show
• Follow the podcast @fmfshow
• Check the website, fmfshow.com

Until we cross paths again...

X

Our English Premier League journey, for the second time, finished last week with Manchester City crowned league champions, denying Liverpool what would have been an incredible three-in-a-row following a close-fought season.

While City (and Shane) can celebrate a league title, there's the small matter of a Champions League final for Liverpool (and Ken) with this week seeing the Reds in action against Bayern in Paris.

We'll get a feel for City's season, and sow the seeds for where we're off to next, but for one final time in Football Manager land, we're hanging with Liverpool in the hope that they can improve on their rollercoaster form of late and get something out of the last game in season 12. 

They think it's all over - it is now.

Contains strong language.

Follow

• @tacticalmanager on X (Ken)
• @sirsok1 on X (Shane)
• @fmfshow on X (the podcast)

or email [email protected] to say hi. 

It's finally over. 

Four months on since the release of Football Manager 2024, our Premier League adventures come to a close this week. 

The two-season arc is finished and the race for the title came all the way down to the final episode of the season. With a game in hand, can City make the extra points a possibility or will their poor run of form continue to haunt them with Liverpool - mathematically at least - still in the league?

It's City v Spurs, Man United and Southampton, while Ken's Liverpool travel to Goodison Park to meet Everton for the final Merseyside derby of the podcast series before hosting Bournemouth on the last day of the season.

Pride is at stake. The Premier League title is at stake. The plan for next season is at stake.

Having ported the universe from Football Manager 2023, is it time to press reset and soak up FM24 for all its worth, or do we head on over to Mexico for our long-planned visit and try cause some carnage that side of the world for a few weeks.

Whatever happens, it's been a long, winding, interesting season, but it all comes to a close this episode!

Contains strong language.

For the second, third and final times in this Football Manager journey of ours, it's back to the Etihad we go this week as Ken's Liverpool make the trip to Shane's 'The Manchester' to settle the trilogy and close out the season.

With a 5-1 aggregate lead from last week's Champions League semi-final, Ken reckons he has this one in the bag, until he realises that the Liverpool prodigy-in-the-making, Fred Kalenga, is going to have to make an appearance with Yunus Musah collecting a potential season-ending injury as soon as we click continue this week. He joins a list including Jude Bellingham, Luis Diaz and Curtis Jones with long-term injuries, while Barello and Roberton still have red cards to contend with. City are bruised but not beaten and they're going full Leeroy Jenkins to try claw a place in this year's Champions League final.

While it seems a long shot, odds are a lot shorter when City and Liverpool have to meet for the final time in the Premier League. When it comes, the gap is only six points. City have a game in hand, with three to play. With likely one episode left for our Premier League adventure, is this the week the title finally goes to the blue half of Manchester, or will there be another twist in the tale that's been our longest season ever.

It's all go, complete with added pressures, frustrations and everything else that Football Manager typically brings, so join us over a break where we get stuck into the run-in for our final stay in England.

Contains strong language.

On Twitter / X?

• Follow Ken @tacticalmanager
• Follow Shane @sirsok1
• Follow the podcast@fmfshow
• Or email us [email protected]

On paper, this might be the biggest clash of our Football Manager journey to date.

While the race for the Premier League title has Man City clear of Liverpool by 6 points, the sides have been paired once again in Europe and this week we’ve got the first of our Champions League semi-finals along with some league action.

Between this week and next, we’ll play each other on three occasions, twice in Europe and once in the league in a bid to settle our final English stint once and for all.

With Liverpool having already seen off City in the Community Shield and the League Cup final this season, is there another sting in the tail or can City exact revenge and progress to the UEFA Champions League final?

I guess we’re about to find out…

This week on The Football Manager Show, we're going back in time. 

You see, there may have been a mishap after last week's episode in that, well, when it was supposed to save, it didn't save. Or maybe Ken didn't save the game. Or maybe the laptop died, or something happened, but the save wasn't there and the backup wasn't there, so where we took off and played our Champions League quarter-finals against Benfica and Real Madrid with Ken winning 2-0 against his old club (while playing with nine men) and Shane going town 2-0 at home against the new age Galacticos, we've got to go again. 

Similarly, we go again against Leeds and Newcastle to bring the timeline up to date before we jump into where we should be. 

Oh you can feel the tension. You can smell the tension. One person in particular is not all that happy. 

But that's what happens in Football Manager land now and again, isn't it?  

Contains strong language, obviously enough.

It's finally April.

We're into single figures remaining in the Premier League, while the Champions League hits the quarter-final stages.

Can Ken's old boys Leicester cause an upset at Man City? Will Haaland have the edge over Real Madrid? Will Benfica come back to haunt Ken at Anfield and dent hopes of European success in our final season in England? So many questions, so many concerns!

Let's get into it and start the countdown to the end of our Premier League stay.

Contains strong language.

It's Friday. It's podcast day. We almost didn't make it, but we did.

For the first time in 3 years, through a myriad of real-world events, it's taken us until late on release day to find 30 minutes together to unwind with some Football Manager.

The gas thing, Shane's still hurting after last week's League Cup Final collapse. But it doesn't matter too much as Ken's Liverpool are just hurting full stop as injuries mount with the calendar turning into April.

Games are shy, cup competition details are revealed and we're plotting a course for the penultimate month in our Premier League stay.

Follow Ken, Shane and the Podcast on X. Contains strong language, but we don't bite.

Get in touch - email [email protected].

The Caribbean God versus the pretender to the throne.

The current FA Cup holders versus the current Premier League holders.

Good versus evil?

For the first time ever in 161 episodes, we're going all-in on one game. Yes, this season has been a slog, but it's also been methodical to a point and as results mounted up, the path was paved to send Man City and Liverpool to this year's Carabao Cup final. Granted, it took a rub of the green for both along the way, but they made it and now, long acclaimed by Shane to be the only cup that matters, the Carabao Cup is up for grabs. Holders Leicester have been disposed of so whoever comes out on the right side of 90 minutes will make for a new home for the first chunk of domestic silverware on offer (Shane doesn't count Ken winning the Community Shield).

We're putting the shout-outs to one side this week and concentrating on game day, all in the space of an hour.

That means the meetings, the injuries, the pre-match press conference, the lineup, the tactical decisions in-game, the running commentary, the goal chances, near misses, exhilarating highs and chronic lows. Whether it comes in 90 minutes, extra time, or by way of a penalty shoot-out (mind your subs!), we're off to Wembley for what's likely to be the last time in podcast land, so we've got to make it count.

Contains strong language, as usual.

On X? 

• Follow Ken @tacticalmanager
• Follow Shane @sirsok1
• Follow the podcast @fmfshow

or just email us - [email protected], with the archive available online at fmfshow.com 

We're mixing things up a little this week.

For the first time in a while, we've managed to get some games under our respective belts this week before we actually press record. Remember when we used to do this before season 12? Recognising that last week segued into all manner of discussion, we're getting into the action early this week as we navigate the last sixteen of the UEFA Champions League before getting in some Premier League action.

We're wrapping up things up this week with two live games as Liverpool head to the City Ground to take on Nottingham Forest while Man City head to St. James' Park to meet fifth-placed Newcastle in a must-win clash if they're to preserve their 10-point lead at the top of the table.

It'll be squeaky-bum time soon enough though as we approach the point of the final ten games of the season, our last ten games in English football's top flight and likely our last ten games in England before moving on to pastures new after two rather long seasons.

Be warned though, next week we're going for a doozy of an episode, the first time we'll have done something like it. Get all the details this week.

Contains strong language.

Follow Ken, Shane or the podcast on X/Twitter. Get in touch by email, [email protected] or visit fmfshow.com for more.