E145: Football Manager 2024 is out, David Ginola's hair, Ken's Liverpool meltdown and other FM stories [Live Episode] In what's one of our most whirlwind episodes to date, we're back for our last game in Football Manager 2023 thanks to the official release of Football Manager 2024 this past Monday. Yes, it's out now, if you haven't gotten a copy already, grab links from FootballManager.com. So what does David Ginola's hair have to do with this week's episode? Quite a lot as it happens. If...

With less cans of Monster and cups of tea than in previous weeks, we're finally back in the studio and find ourselves just days away from the official release of Football Manager 2024. Ken's been getting to grips with Rochdale during #FM24EarlyAccess but in Football Manager 2023 land, the Premier League is underway as Liverpool and City take on West Ham, Chelsea, Chelsea and Sheffield United. As in, they get two games each and both end up playing Chelsea. IRL, Castlewarren are winning...

The Football Manager 2024 beta - aka Early Access - is here. Ken's on holiday for this one so while he's away we've managed to get a remote link to do the podcast this week and it all builds to just one match before we make the jump to Football Manager 2024. It's the biggest game of the pre-season. All the preparation comes down to this - the FA Community Shield (nee the much-loved Charity Shield) as Liverpool and Man City lock horns for the first time this season. Liverpool have made two...

With the Club World Cup behind us (and another trophy in the bag for Liverpool), Shane's bound for Singapore where he's intent on making an example of the locals. The sprawling extent of Liverpool's finances are revealed as the lads effectively draw a line under their transfer activity well ahead of the closing of the window. And it's the last game in the save before the FM24 beta gets released - though if we're right, it will have been released on the day of recording, i.e. yesterday. More...

This week on the podcast it's a fly-on-the-wall approach to our Club World Cup journey with Liverpool and Man City facing heavy opposition in the form of PSG and Bayern. Recorded over a lunchtime sandwich, you'll get a feel for how our live plays for Football Manager 2023 are getting somewhat frustrating, with a whole season yet to come and a Premier League campaign that we need to rip through once our transfer business is complete. Let's get to some games - all very sweary - and get stuck...

As we begin our fourth and final season in the Football Manager 2023 universe we find ourselves in new territory - the FIFA Club World Cup. What's managed to escape us in recent years because, well, we weren't winning Premier League titles or Champions League titles or FA Cups or anything like that, both Liverpool and Man City are in the FIFA Club World Cup. That means we've packed our bags to head to Japan for a few weeks in lieu of the regular pre-season to try get our hands on the first...

It's time to start sending Football Manager 2023 home, and do it in style.  For season 12, we're going to try and squeeze it all into the month of October, right up to the lead off of Football Manager 2024 which - if you've been living under a rock and not heard already - gets a release at 4pm on 6 November. Picking up where we left of last week, Shane's landed himself at Man City for our FM23 swan song and with that comes a war chest of over €230m to spend as he sees fit. Can he rebuild City...

On this week's podcast we're finally drawing a line under season 11 of The Football Manager Football Show. Liverpool have won the Premier League, Hoffenheim have finished outside of the European placings and a season that started united (no pun intended), ended divided which means it's time to settle on where we go for season 12. With Football Manager 2024 virtually around the corner (it's out in under two months from now), we've got a look at some more of the details emerging on FM24 and...

It's been a big week for Football Manager fans. The game's 2024 edition just got a release date - 6 November - there are competitions for copies flying all over the place, save reveals are happening, Twitter (X) is tearing apart the launch trailer to look for any hidden details that might give something away and pre-orders are open via Steam with early access included for the beta release once more. While all that's going on, we've got to wrap up season 11 of the podcast and close the door on...

The wins are adding up for Hoffenheim and European qualification is within grasp. For Liverpool, a draw is all that's needed to secure the first Premier League title for the podcast since we launched and there's every possibility it could happen at Anfield. But then, the most curious thing of the entire season happens. Perhaps the entire three seasons to date for FM23. There's an implosion, while we're live.  One minute the champagne is being prepared, the next you're staring into the abyss,...

It's just another day in paradise for The Football Manager Football Show. March turns into April this week as we continue the live-plays in studio where fresh from their exit of both the Champions League and FA Cup at the hands of Arsenal and Man City respectively, Liverpool start the month with a tough home fixture against Chelsea before heading on to Leeds while Newcastle are waiting in the wings. If cup competitions aren't Ken's thing this season, is there enough left in the tank to see...

We're back in the studio, recording some live play this week as we move through March in season 11 - now combining the Premier League and Bundesliga. On the domestic front, Shane's struggling to score goals but is doing a reasonable job of not conceding them at the same time. In Europe, however, Newcastle are on their way back with a 4-1 lead in town. Could he actually crack it and get Hoffenheim over the line at the expense of the magpies? And as for Liverpool, well, they're a different...

We're back in the studio again this week for another live-play fix from the topsy-turvy world of our Football Manager multiverse. This week we'll - Find out what Ken's been up to with Benfica- Get the latest from Shane on his return to Preston and Man United- Take in some Europa Conference League, FA Cup, Premier League, Bundesliga AND Champions League action- Discuss player development while dissecting each others' work and more It gets animated but we'll quickly discover that some old...

We're back in another "live" episode this week as we get to grips with the Europa Conference League for Shane's Hoffenheim while Ken's getting reacquainted with an old flame in the FA Cup. Frankfurt make a fleeting return to the podcast too this week but between squad registration woes and big ticket injuries, there are causes for concern for both sides as we leave the transfer window behind us and move through February. We've got three months left in the season to make something happen but...

Like two kids in a sweetshop, Ken and Shane have money to burn and it's transfer deadline day so we're going with one more live episode to get us across the line and into February. For Ken, there's about €20m to play with at Anfield though with the squad registration full, it's got to be one-in-one-out and the offers aren't exactly forthcoming. Shane has a shade over €60m to play with a new job as he takes over Hoffenheim. Can he rebuild the squad in his own vision, in one day, and get a win...

Football Manager slows for no man, woman or child. As we tick towards the January transfer window, Shane's still jobless having suffered at the hands of the Man Utd board last time out with his unceremonious sacking. But with the clock ticking down to transfer deadline day, is there any hope of him securing a job, let alone one that might allow him to dip his toes into the transfer market?  It's another live episode as we work through job hunting for Shane while Ken's ticking towards the end...

Unbeaten streaks are there to be broken. Small teams exist to cause you to let your guard down, trip you up. Sometimes the big names fall. Sometimes, you don't always get to win. That's what it feels a little like this week as we move into January. We arrived there in last week's episode, the new year bringing renewed hope and optimism. Shane's got himself a league cup semi-final against Leicester with the Foxes - Ken's former club - having dumped Liverpool out at the quarter-final stages....

It's episode 128 and in the studio this week we've been blitzing a whopping eight games in December between the Premier League, Champions League and League Cup with more mixed results this week. Now, Shane's not been sacked - yet - though we're playing through some live elements this episode to see if it will happen or if he can actually pull off the greatest of escapes. Augsburg just needed to reach January before going on a five-month rip, can the same happen at Old Trafford this...

In a break from our usual approach to playing, we've decided to take the studio for a long lunch break and bounce out the month of November in our third season in Football Manager 2023. We floated the idea last week that with Shane's ongoing frustrations with Man United winning in Europe but performing miserably in the league, we would record 'as live' to share some of his sheer mental anguish with the game. The board are on his back, the fans are on his back, he's lost most of the dressing...

On this week's helping of The Football Manager Football Show, we've got some immediate reaction to the announcement from the Sports Interactive announcement on changes coming down the track for FM24 and FM25. We'll get into it more down the line but it's safe to say that, on paper, it's a bold statement that sets out a clear path for the future of Football Manager and should go a long way towards easing some long-term fans concerns over the current iteration of the game. As October turns into...

In a week where Luke Shaw has been showing Shane that he's got Puskas credentials, we're getting through September and into October as our return to the Premier League continues. Not only that but we've got the first taste of two cup competitions with Liverpool and Man United in Champions League action against some familiar opposition while the League Cup gets underway on home soil, one of our intrepid duo getting a more favourable draw. To squad rotate or not, to play wingers or not, to give...

The 2024/25 Premier League season is underway! With pre-season wrapped and a transfer deadline day looming, the Premier League season starts properly with Liverpool at home to Arsenal on the opening day of the season while Man United make the trip to West Ham. We'll get through the month of August and through to mid-September including our first Premier League transfer deadline day since Season 3 (Leicester/Wolves), along with the draw for the new-look Champions League and the third round of...

It's a very Premier League pre-season as we get through our entire calendar of pre-season games this week for Liverpool and Man United. While Liverpool seem to be able to raise transfer funds through departures like Henderson, Thiago, Keita and more, United can't seem to sell a sinner get a bloated squad trimmed before the league kicks off. As pre-season goes, we've got Bayern, PSG, a trip to China, Liverpool in Spain and Scotland and we're packing in games, testing out squads and trying to...

It's the season 11 premiere that we've been waiting for since, well, season 1. Germany is in the rearview mirror and we're off to pastures new. We've had suggestions of Holland, ducking down to Serie C, going to the depths of the English football pyramid, heading to Australia or backpacking across Asia. But at the end of the day, there's one footballing rivalry that we've been looking to sink our teeth into since we started the podcast and for some reason, we've danced around it but never...

So it turns out that when we put our minds to it, we can actually blaze through a whole bunch of games in Football Manager when the pressure is on and things need to get turned around quickly - namely us closing out the final six weeks of our time in Germany and the Bundesliga. We won't spoil it entirely, but there are a few positives to take away from the whole experience - though how does it all work out? Just when it looks like Frankfurt were cruising, the wheels started to come off thanks...