The Football Manager Football Show

"It's sh*#e being Scottish", once uttered Ewan McGregor as Mark Renton in Trainspotting.

It certainly has that feel about dealing with contracts, loans, transfer budgets and more as we work our way through pre-season in Scotland.

We've got far-flung friendlies against Lens, Morecambe, Albion Rovers, Colchester and more to look forward to this week along with the arrival of more triallists (who doesn't love a good trial when you can't scout or struggle to sign players pre-season), and some more Irish players to bolster the Hibs ranks. 

Frustrations are there already with a number of big injuries in pre-season already forcing a change of tactic and approach for the year ahead but it's all part of the fun of the fair.

If you want to get involved or share updates on your own FM journey, find us on Twitter @FMFShow.

Contains strong language. 

Forget about the Old Firm derby and all the trappings that Celtic and Rangers could bring. This season, it's all about Hibs and Hearts to find a new king of Edinburgh and try break the stranglehold on Scottish football.

With Shane already shacked up at Hearts having suffered at the hands of the AC Milan Board with a few months left in our Italian season, Ken's finished up his time at Inter having lost the league on the last day of the season, handing it to Juventus by a single point.

Rather than jump ship from Hearts and gloss over a Scottish adventure, Ken's gunning for a club rival and all of a sudden we're bracing ourselves for Trainspotting references, bad Scottish accents and the potential of a battered Mars bar.

Grab new episodes every Friday wherever you get your podcasts and thanks once more for joining us on our Football Manager journey!

Contains strong language.

It's the end of the season as we know it and it's time to go out on a high in Scotland and Italy. Kind of.

Much like the world of hurling and football, we've ended up with a split season this year. Shane's unceremonious sacking at Milan meant he had to pack his bags mid-season, taking two months to find a job at the heart of Scottish football.

While he's been getting to grips with a team who have little to no coaching staff and players he'll never remember, Ken's trying to hold on to the ones he does know though a bulky medical staff can do nothing to prevent injury to a half dozen regular starters for Inter.

We're closing out season six and saying 'arrivederci' to Italy with the possibility of a domestic double on the cards while there's a slim chance of European qualification for Hearts in their final five games of the Championship grouping in the SPL.

How will it all work out and where are we off to for season seven? You'll have to listen to find out.

Note: This episode contains strong language.

It's the penultimate episode on our Italian journey that has now become a two-country affair.

Shane's got his new job and as per league rules, he can't manage again in Serie A in the same season so he's bound for Scotland! 

With the potential of silverware on the table before the season is out, he's got his work cut out for him. So too does Ken as Inter hit their run-in with eight games left to play and the possibility of a league and cup double very much on.

We're also back in the studio this week with the conversation flying on everything from job changes to tactics, team-talks to injuries, where we might go next season and how we're expecting to wrap up Serie A.

All going to plan, season six draws to a close next episode (67) but we've got a lot to get through before then, least of all figuring out a new team, new setup and new league structure with barely six weeks left in the season.

This episode contains strong language. Find new episodes every Friday for your weekly dose of Football Manager content, online at scoreline.ie/fm or wherever you do your podcast listening.

It's looking like the last of our remote-recorded "live play" episodes and would you believe it, there's some job interviews on the table!

While we work our way through March and on to April, we've finally got movement on the jobs front for one Shane O'Keeffe as the interviews finally mount up, two months after getting the sack from Milan, while Ken's got some Coppa Italia action and league games to play through with Sassuolo and Juventus nipping at his heels.

This should also be the final 'live play' episode for a while as holidays, filming schedules and everything else come to a close, landing us back in studio next week as we move one episodes closer to the Serie A finale. Well, with one of us in Serie A anyway. As for where Shane ends up, it's anyone's guess. Scotland, Portugal, Germany, England and even a return trip to Turkey having guided Galatasaray to the league title last season are all possible. Can he get a job over the line in time for next week?

Taking time out from descriptions, we'd like to say thanks to all who've continued to support and download the podcast in recent weeks. We've heard from people who've been jumping in for the start of the FM22 cycle to those who've gone right back to the start and consumed every episode to date - wherever you've joined us along our journey, thanks for the company and we hope you're enjoying our playthrough of all things Football Manager. April 2022 has been the biggest and best month for downloads since the very beginning and we're loving the interaction generated week in, week out.

Even if you've only barely loaned us your ears, thanks for being part of The Football Manager Football Show.

This episode contains strong language. 

You can get new episodes of the podcast every Friday from wherever you do your podcast listening.

With filming continuing on Shane's feature film, we're tight on game nights so we're on the second of three 'live play' episodes with Shane job hunting while the gloss starts to fade on Ken's stint at the top of Serie A.

Brighton, Southampton, Boavista, Hoffenheim, Bochum, Troyes, Bournemouth, Aberdeen and more all look like they've got availability, but will 'The Don' finally get that phone call he's been waiting for?

And having fallen foul of Lazio last week, Ken's got a 1-0 lead to protect against Bayern Munich in the last sixteen of the Champions League - can the Germans make home advantage count or can Inter spoil the Bundesliga leaders party?

Join us as we play through - live - another night of Football Manager 2022.

And yes, strong language makes an appearance.

We're in unchartered territory for a week or so.

Covid has struck, after dodging the thing for the bones of two years, leaving Ken at home and the studio off-limits while Shane's in the middle of making his next movie.

Oh, and he got fired last week as the AC Milan board finally gave up on his false promises and penchant for wonderkids and flamboyant spending in a league where results matter most.

So, we're taking things a little different for episode 63 - the real episode 63 - as we walk through the games Ken's playing and the jobs Shane is hunting, live. 

You may have heard us to live matches across the season, but what happens when we actually sit down to start playing FM together on our usual week nights? There's a lot more digs thrown, that's for sure.

We're back to more normality next week (and the warmth of a Covid-free studio).

Peace x

It's taken us 62 episodes to get to this point, but we've got ourselves a Football Manager Football Show exclusive, maybe even the first time that this has happened in Football Manager.

From Argentina to England, Spain to Turkey and now Italy, it's taken us 62 episodes to get to this point with some insane ups and downs along the way.

But the news we got 15 minutes before walking into the studio to record this weekend's episode marks a Football Manager first.

Before we get to that, we've got some juicy league games to get through, the closing stages of the January transfer window with a few sneaky deals lined up. The quarter-finals of the Coppa Italia are also looming with Juventus and Lazio on the horizon but on the league front it's close at the top with just 2 points separating 6 sides.

Get involved with the conversation on Twitter, we hang out at @FMFshow and one of these days we'll be opening the doors on FMFShow.com.

You'll find new episodes (containing strong language) every Friday on your favourite podcast platform or check the archive on scoreline.ie/fm.

It's January in Italy and it's a cold start to the new year.

With the transfer window officially opening, the reinforcements are arriving in Milan including two of our FM21 standouts, Yusuf Demir and Karim Adeyemi.

But while the new recruits make themselves at home in Milan, someone's getting hauled over the coals Football Manager style and threatened with their job over a loose comment in a press conference. As it happens, that's kind of a thing in FM. Who knew?

There's one or two heavy-hitting games as well with a cup hammering handed out while the San Siro gets ready to host the first Milan derby of the season, but who comes out on top?

Oh, and it's a sweary start to make up for last week.

Like what you hear? Follow us on Twitter @FMFshow or as soon as we get the finger out, you'll find our new website at FMFShow.com.

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Is "football coming home"? Can the European champions be toppled? We're not really sure to be honest as the winter World Cup comes and goes - with a few surprises to be fair - as we transition from late October to late December in this week's edition of The Football Manager Football Show.

We begin by wrapping up October with the last of our league and Champions League fixtures before the winter break kicks in.

When it does, one of us is getting bigger wages, the other is getting a very tidy transfer budget that means only one thing - the arrival of two or three wonderkds in time for the opening of the January transfer window. A

But is it too little too late? Is one club board in particular going to be so ruthless that they would sever ties before you've really gotten warmed up?  And why in the name of God can certain players, of late, not hit the broad end of a barn when they're clear through on goal? And is Shane really going to make it to the end of the podcast without swearing this week? It's very possible.

Also, on Friday this week we'll open the doors on fmfshow.com as a new location for our episodes, some new blogs, streams and more as we double-down on the podcast and Football Manager 2022.

If you enjoy the journey and you like what you hear, we'd love if you could tap those five-star reviews on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, if only so we can show that it's ok to be doing this kind of thing during office hours!