The Football Manager Football Show

We're barely days out from Christmas, we're turning into November in Portugal, a World Cup is coming up and we're saying goodbye to the Champions League group stages!

Wherever you are in the world this week, have a safe and peaceful Christmas - try get in some quality game time and keep fighting the good Football Manager fight!

This week we've got Robbie quarantined in a room somewhere beyond the realms of the studio as we navigate November's league games before the Allianz Cup and the World Cup in Qatar kick in. We've got our final two Champions League games to play as well - can Porto and Sporting defy the odds and come up with the goods? Can anyone stop the Benfica train from rolling on? Will Beljo have another standout week?

Contains strong language.

Follow the podcast on Twitter, @FMFshow, and happy Christmas to you and yours! 

We don't call too many podcasts 'ranty', but this one took a turn as struggles in the Champions League boil over into frustrations with winter football and some of the learnings of the game.

With our host-v-host games out of the way last week, it's on to another two rounds of the league, two more rounds of the Champions League where results are a must to ensure progress, survival, or avoid elimination altogether, and we begin the Taca de Portugal as we draw a line under the majority of October.

Can league form translate into European success or has it all gone Pete Tong already?

Join the conversation on Twitter @FMFShow and get new episodes wherever you do your podcast listening every Friday.

We're moving from August into September and we've got not one but two host-v-host games as Ken has to take on Robbie and Shane in one fortnight. We've got Champions League action, deadline-day dilemmas and more in another sweary, ranty week in the world of Football Manager.

It's August in Portugal and our first Football Manager 23 Champions League experience doesn't start well.

With pre-season behind us, it's time to start our league run properly and we do just that by clearing out all the league fixtures in August and get a feel for what way the opposition is setting up in Liga Bwin.

Robbie's struggling with suspensions, Shane's new signing is leading the goalscoring charts and Ken's got more Champions League qualifying games to get through if he's to join the lads in the group stages.

We'll go through the eventual Champions League draw, take a look at what's been happening this past week for some of the Football Manager community and ahead of introducing you to some bonus content, we somehow wind up reminiscing about the glory days in Brazil off the back of the recent documentary on Ronaldo.

There is some strong language in there, check the website for screenshots and more updates and as always, thanks so much for your ears. Committing to a podcast is a big ask of your time and time and again you continue to hit play, so thanks for keeping us company this year.

Follow the podcast on Twitter @fmfshow while Ken's under @tacticalmanager and Shane's at @sirsok1. As for Robbie, he tells us he's working on it!

We're kicking off the league proper in Portugal this week so brace yourself for a rant about transfers, setups and conceding goals from impossible angles.

After a decent pre-season run for our three Portuguese amigos, we're getting set to kick off Liga Bwin proper, which means there are a few decisions to be made - what gaps need to be filled, who can we sell to raise a few quid, and how do you get your defenders to push up or spread balls out to the wings?

There's a steep learning curve in Football Manager but when you're flung in at the deep end you'll find out it's sink-or-swim very early on. Ken's got some Champions League football to look forward to as Monaco provides the first of two obstacles to group-stage qualification and for some reason, there's a bizarre number of pre-season injuries stacking up.

Oh, and as for gripes about goals, this is the whopper conceded by Shane this week.

It's slow-moving with three of us navigating pre-season but as the league starts, we're all on the same match-day buzz for the next few weeks. With some strong language peppered throughout, it's on to this week's edition of The Football Manager Football Show.

Grab fresh episodes every Friday on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or here on FMFShow.com and if you can spare the time, consider throwing a 5* review our way on your favourite podcast platform as we build out our Football Manager 2023 coverage.

Contains strong language.

Follow the podcast on Twitter @FMFShow, follow Ken @tacticalmanager or Shane @sirsok1.

Preseason is done and dusted in Portugal... just about, so how does our Football Manager newcomer plan his season ahead and what's impacting those decisions?

Contains strong language.
Follow the podcast @FMFShow
Follow Ken @tacticalmanager
Follow Shane @sirsok1

Season 9 is officially underway. The band is back together and we've added a third wheel, only this wheel has *never* played Football Manager before. What happens when you unleash a complete newbie to the world of FM?

With Shane's riches in South Africa secured safe and sound and Toulouse now a top-half team in Ligue 1, it's time to get the ball rolling on Football Manager 2023 as we get a three-way dance going for the first season of Sports Interactive's latest edition of our favourite football management simulation.

Experienced players will have a very set way of beginning in Football Manager with some of us having developed routines going all the way back to the early Championship Manager days. So how, in 2023, does it work for someone coming to the world of FM for the very first time, in what should be a competitive league, with European cup competitions and big board and supporter demands?

With little in terms of a transfer budget, gaps in squads and the potential for some great rival games, it's time to kick off Season 9!

And with eight seasons in the bag between Ken and Shane, we're introducing another member of the Scoreline team, Castlewarren's star striker (who doubles as a decent centre-half), Robbie Dowling. Be sure to say hello on Twitter @FMFShow.

If you're just joining us for the first time, thanks so much for the loan of your ears. Continue the journey afresh as we navigate season 9 or go all the way back to season 1 and catch up on our journey that started in South America, hitting England, Spain, Turkey, Italy, Scotland, France and South Africa along the way.

Contains strong language.  

Let's burn this house down - our Football Manager 2022 adventure is finally finished

It's only taken until the week before the full release of Football Manager 2023, but our Football Manager 2022 journey has come to an end.

Some people would call that impeccable timing. Others might call it tantamount to torture as the French and South African seasons come to a close.

For Ken, it's been a tough season at Toulouse. What started with bright promise in August and September spiralled into the winter before a mixed bag of results sent some hope through the squad for a revival of fortunes. With seven games left to play, the threat of relegation still needs to be nullified. Can he turn it around in the closing weeks of the season?

And for Shane, despite all the wins in the league, he's been pushed all the way by rivals Kaizer Chiefs, to the point of having six points separate the sides. He's also got the Nedbank Cup and African Champions League to still contend with in a season that extends into June. Can he turn it into a clean sweep and leave the continent and FM 22 with some added silverware?

Plus, when we get through ALL of the games, highs and lows in this week's bumper episode, we'll take a look back at our FM22 journey in total and compare notes as to how we got on.

March is done and dusted as we try to shoehorn the closing games of FM22 into a bumper week (next week) to wrap up this game cycle. Before then, we've more African Champions League action to get through as Toulouse hit (another) poor run of form.

Shane's got his biggest league test to date in a top-of-the-table clash with Kaizer Chiefs while it's looking like Ken can't buy a win again this week in France as late lapses in judgement cost Toulouse dearly in the league.

On the topic of Football Manager discussion, Shane's got a few things to get off his chest as the graphics, gameplay and dodgy transfers come into question with it still apparent that AI teams are hoarding big-name players and letting them chill on the bench. Will this be remedied for FM23? And as the debate around graphics in the FM world continues, does it *really* matter how good, bad or indifferent the match-day experience looks?

Get new episodes every Friday on FMFShow.com and wherever you do your podcast listening.

The Football Manager 2023 beta has been released and this week we're introducing a third player to proceedings, Scoreline producer and Liverpool fan Robbie Dowling.

Games are back in South Africa as the AFCON goes by way of Nigeria but Orlando Pirates are playing catchup with a ton of games to get through. In France, Ken finds Toulouse struggling to hit the back of the net but a new recruit from PSG may just be the answer to push on for European places.

With only six points between the 5th and 14th, results will prove vital in our closing weeks of the FM22 cycle.