Your FM22 journey - summed up in your words

[karanhsingh]

Since the FM22 cycle is coming to an end, thought it would be nice to hear about each person's journey with the game and see how they have enjoyed it - and of course touching upon the different ways people choose to play it. The highlights and the low-lights, and also regrets if any. I know I have some! 

So here is a short(ish) version of my FM22 journey. 

First save was a Turkish journeyman which lasted 4 seasons and ended up managing Fenerbahce (which was my top pick from the beginning) and not only winning the league but also the Europa League with them. That was a really fun way to end the Turkish stint. 

Next up was probably the best save of the year with Paris FC as we looked to take on the behemoth that is PSG. 5 very enjoyable seasons ended up with a 2nd place finish in Ligue 1, and the crowning moment of glory was winning the Coupe de France 3-2 against our Parisian neighbors with the winner coming from a player who was on loan with us and still owned by PSG 

After this, it was off to England for the first and only time in the cycle for a short save with Everton which did end up with pipping local rivals Liverpool to a Premier League title, helped by a massively over-rated Dominic Calvert-Lewin who won consecutive golden boots somehow.

An inter-continental journeyman save followed which was highly enjoyable, with a first ever stint in Asia at Incheon FC, then Boavista in Portugal for a couple of seasons before finally coming to the Diego Maradona Stadium and winning a long-awaited Scudetto for Napoli. 

My final save was a journeyman in Ukraine where the ultimate goal was to win the CL with Dynamo Kiev. However the job took ages to open up and we ended up winning the league with Rukh Lyiv instead. By the time the Kiev job opened up unfortunately FM took a back-seat since my work life became extremely busy...

Overall, it's been a good run, 1000 hours played for 3 years running. League titles across a number of countries and got to manage in some new regions & experience new faces. The Europa win with Fenerbahce and the Cup win with Paris FC were probably the best moments of the year.

A few regrets which I will look to "correct" in the FM23 cycle:

- once again I failed to have a really long term save i.e. 10+ years, always get the new save itch after 5-6 seasons

- first edition in a while wherein I did not win a single Champions League title 

- did not end up doing any lower league save in England which is usually a staple 

Be great to hear from some others!

[rp1966]

First save during the Beta was with Union Berlin. chosen to allow me to see the Bundesliga specific matchday graphics. Played until the full release and got Union Berlin established as a regular European qualifier.

Second save after full release started at West Ham - won European Conference and Europa League back to back, with a few FA cups along the way; got bored before getting the EPL title and resigned, joining Brazillian team Athletico Paranaense, played a couple of seasons, but found the number of games per season in Brazil a bit of a slog, thankfully Sevilla came along to lure me back to Europe. Won all domestic honours in Spain and another Europa League, had a couple of near misses in Champions League finals; did a nation management job for one world cup - winning it with England in 2030.

New database post transfer window started a journeyman from lower league (the save I'm still playing) - started at the lowest local club in the standard databases (no custom tier 8 database for me) - Halifax Town.  Played a season and half with Halifax Town before Bradford City approached me. Got Bradford promoted from L2 to L1, then Nottingham Forest came in for me; took them from Championship to EPL, managed to get them to 2nd in the league and secure them as a top 6 side, but no cups. Approached by Inter Milan who I've had 4 back to back Serie A wins with. Still no Champions League win, though. Currently about to start 2036/37 season. Probably won't finish the season before the FM23 beta drops.

 

Edited October 6, 2022 by rp1966

[KillYourIdols]

Quote

Your FM22 journey - summed up in your words

Dog Dirt.

[Piperita]

Started the beta with Freiburg to see whether or not I could replicate their overperformance from real life (that turned out not to be an overperformance but a new reality). In an eventful season I managed to win the title thanks to two wins over the big Bayern, a really solid defensive block, as well as good teamwork. It probably also didn't hurt that almost every player was rated "enjoys big matches" and "highly consistent". It was a fun season and the AI really worked that transfer window afterwards. I lost two key players to big offers and got a few new additions in. But the spark was quickly lost due to a combination Qatar and Champion's League creating too much match congestion to be enjoyable and the beta-database just being too different. Mostly in a good way (more higher PA players in lower leagues, more spread in CA) but it was still too much to get it going concurrently to a full save.  Plus, I had already finished a lot of future transfers and the values were a lot weirder, which might have weirded out my board ^^

Once the full game started, I started as a dictator manager in the third league as I do every year. This time my eyes fell on Victoria Köln, mainly because they had two very promising talents and because it is a fun region for the youth team and local rivalries. Let's just say that it was absolute bonkers! The main talent, Amyn, still plays for me ten seasons later and is my star player. Thrice I almost lost him. The first time when I just got promoted to the Bundesliga. I had an offer for 25 Million (five times my yearly wages and as much as the stadium expansion) which the board accepted and I fought tooth and nail. I needed this guy, expected more, and will not let them set a precedent: I am the boss! The year after I had access to more talents and I chose to accept a deadline day offer for 60 million which failed as the contract negotiations took too long. The third time was after my first sextuple. Got an absolute immoral offer from England and I could never hope to beat them on wages. Outside of gamey reasons I had to accept. But instead I chose to try my luck with contract negotiations and with some incentives he chose to stay another 5 years and lost any interest in transferring. I stopped a year after though as winning the second sextuple with most players in the starting eleven being under 20 was getting too much and I finally started to realise that an attacking 4231 just has too much power of its own, no tactical brilliance needed.

Then real life made me stop a longish time. First too much work, then moving into a new house and finally the big events that made me compulsively check news feeds every few seconds and made me way too familiar with eastern Europe's geography and city names. For half of which I had a bookmark for mentions on Twitter at some times...

Recently I got back into the groove. Got an experimental save with Bochum going and fell in love with both AMa and CMa. Got two extraordinary seasons before new ideas struck me Then I really realised what the DLFa not having a hardlocked "Get Further Forward" means. Tried a few more extravagant tactics. A 541 with a full defensive line with support duty. Tactics fully build around the "Switches to Wide Area" and "Makes Long Passes" PPM. A AFa+RMD experiment resulting in something were 90% of goals went to two player. This save I almost deemed good enough to continue. But for my peace of mind I chose not to -- There were too many patterns I was invested in that I knew I'd sooner rather than later would savescum them into perpetuity.

Right now I am doing mostly rescue missions. I holiday to the end of January and take over a struggling team to save them from relegation or secure their ticket into Europe. Then I retire and do the same thing again half a year later. Maybe I'll stay a full season after if I was successful and caught a spark but I mostly want to stick to short stories and games inside this save. It is easier to learn new things if I have to use an existing squad to full strength without having the luxury of a preseason or the opportunity to force the time to conform to my idea of football.
So far it is going well. I saved Bielefeld in the first season, no thanks to board who decided to sell two key players on my second day. I played a highly compact system and slowly but surely broke away from both Berlins. In the second season I helped Union reach their goal of returning to the Bundesliga. Ironically through a playoff win against Bielefeld. I continued for half a year until I got into trouble with the board. After three major disagreements I quit and went to what I thought would have been my first station: Fürth. That turned out to be too much. I got them a good amount of points but it wasn't enough, especially as this was a year with no stragglers and everyone else got their fair amount of points. Nonetheless, after a few months of rest, I got an offer from my favourite team who were struggling against relegation (too real) despite yearning for Europe (again: too real, give a guy some warning!) and I was chosen to get back into the upper half. The squad was great but bought without a concept behind it (this is getting hurtful -- I want escapism!). Currently I am in a four-way to the last European place and I think I'll give it another year if I manage it. I had to cut ties with a star player and the vice-captain, and the old hierarchy is generally not existent anymore. Reconstruction will be fun!

Weirdly enough, that is the most I got into Wolfsburg this year. Started a few saves. Played a few games. Abused the editor a lot. But somehow I never caught a spark. Partly because a lot of concepts were not compatible with the players or worked too well. I got results but not the way I wanted.

[marLey7]

i created instant data tech

[RiverReveal666]

I did my usual:

• Take over Man Utd.
• Play around with the new headline features and see which ones actually make a meaningful difference to the game.
• Wait for the release of the in game editor.
• Nerf half the team as their attributes are usually much to high and start a new save with the day one patch.
• Play a few seasons.
• Usually win the treble / quad by the third season.
• Get bored.
• Swear that I am not going to buy the next edition.
• Skip through the next editions nauseating headline features YouTube video and shake my head about the lack of innovation.
• Swear again that I am not going to get the next edition.
• Buy the next edition on the same day the beta goes live.
• Take over Man Utd.... 

[kingjericho]

Only one save - journeyman in Scandinavia - in which I won very domestic trophy in the 5 playable nations. I didn't win a European trophy but came close. I'm satisfied.

[soablacksmith]

From Beta till summer - Schalke 04. Managed to get them back into Bundesliga (not a big deal). Couldn't win Bundesliga with them in 5-6 seasons (just gained European Cup participation) but grew some decent talents and established a strong economical structure which satisfied me actually.

Real drama started with my summer save: Deportivo La Coruna

Managed to win Primera Division RFEF in my first season.

Made into playoffs in my second season (avoiding relegation was the season goal)

Playoffs Semifinal: Knocked out Malaga (2-1 and 1-1)

Playoffs Final: First Game vs Valladolid at our home Riazor: 3-0!

                      - started early celebrations in the city, fans were gathering at town squares etc. -

                       Second Game vs Valladolid (away) : 0-4  They also scored their last goal from a freekick at 94th minute.

I couldn't carry on mentally and stopped playing right at that moment. Deportivo save will be my first save on FM23! We have an unfinished business.

[gggfunk]

First of all, I must say this year's game was great and I really enjoyed playing it. However, I'm frustrated by my indecisiveness about having a long term save... My problem is, there is always a huge amount of teams I want to manage and I just cannot decide if it's better to have one single save with all of them (playing as multiple managers), or to have several saves and manage just 1 team at once like normal people do. I tried both ideas repeatedly, always quitting the save after max 3-4 seasons, so I didn't really get the full FM experience this year. I swore to myself this won't happen again with FM 23 

Still, during these couple of seasons I had the most fun with Arsenal, Barcelona, and Zaglebie Lubin. I've also tried my first journeyman save and it was short but great fun, definitely this is a kind of save I will try to do properly in FM 23.

[Ranquelme]

Napoli save, got 5-6 years in. Struggled due to the Inside forwards being broken. Gave up and went back to FM21.

[JAwtunes]

Rather than find my own words, I thought I would use those of the board as they have followed me through all of my saves

[Jonthedon26]

This is one of the least played versions of FM for me in a long time, not because I didn't enjoy it, just because life took over. With that said, I started with my team Birmingham City on the first day the beta came out and stuck with them since! Only managed to get through 5 seasons, but got promoted in my 2nd season, then came 16th, 14th and 14th, currently 10th in January of my 6th season. Enjoyed what I have played, just haven't been able to play enough!

[Overmars]

My two main saves:

1. Telstar (Netherlands) then Koln (Germany)
2. Hamilton (Scotland) then Coventry (England)

Lots of league titles, but I couldn't find any success in continental competitions. I think those competitions were tougher than ever in FM22. The elite teams are overwhelming with their superstars, and since they never seem to age, that advantage sticks around for a long time.

[maxi7]

Could have been better, could have played more. A few saves I wanted to work out never worked out.

The new experience I tried was fun but got easy quickly.  KuPs in Finland, winning a league that ran March>October and being way ahead of European competition teams on fitness was an interesting turn.

[Dreambuilder]

Played since cm00/01 and FM18. For the first time I managed to not start a new save until 2026  Had great fun with producing local regens. In FM23 I will play beyond 2026 and build my favourite swedish club 👍

[ralala]

Added some custom databases to my game for the first time in many years.

Going for a sort of Scandinavian Steel or Scandinavigon challenge if you will, I added Faeroese leagues as a starting location and a fun remake of the dead Royal League for FM 22'.

The Royal League however had a bug. A coefficient bug that made any nation participating in the RL have '0' points each year.

This means the Scandinavian nations are below such powerhouses as Andorra, San Marino and Liechtenstein in the rankings and getting no qualifier slots for European places.

So qualifying for Europe then starts as a weird little pre-pre qualifier knock-out tournament played in Gibraltar for the teams involved. 2 or 3 games I think, before you are into the (pre)-qualifier proper.

These qualifiers in Gibraltar takes place in the summer, right in the middle of the Norwegian season. Throw in some domestic cup and of course the Royal League running throughout the year for a two-games-a-week second half of the season. 

And since the ratings will never improve, I will always have to go to Gibraltar.

Could be fun if I did it on purpose as a challenge perhaps, but not so fun when you discover the problem so far into the save. I didn't really try for Europe until 20 season in or so.. a bit late to start over.

I got to the quarter finals in CL as the high-point. But winning the league as invincible but then getting knocked out of europe by Midtjylland or some nonsense on Gibraltar in June deflated the save a bit for me.

Lesson of the year; Go vanilla save again for 23' like I usually do. And do try something other than 442 next year(right..)

Edited October 10, 2022 by ralala

[Cmdr Christoff]

I bought Fm22 last year, which was my first venture back into the game since CM93

Im just about to complete my 2nd season in the Premiership with Norwich and looks like I've kept them from being relegated, so I'm quite pleased with that.  I always watch the full match, and with other commitments, I generally only play 2 to 3 matches a week, so I am learning the game very slowly.  On the whole I have been enjoying the game, and hopefully learning from the many mistakes I have made.  I have already ordered FM23, and I'm looking forward to the new features and improvements to the ME.  My plan is to retire from Norwich, and try my luck with a Vanarma league team.

[Poison]

Asteras Tripolis (sacked within objectives) -> Rodos (sacked within objectives!)  -> Stoke ( promoted them in 2 years, sacked after terrible performances in the EPL) -> Middlesbrough (stayed for nine years, promoted them, got one conference cup, Haaland was destroying me, best position in the EPL 5th IIRC -> Stuttgart ( got them in a really bad season, couldn't save them from relegation, stayed 5 months, sacked) -> Montpellier Herault (14 seasons, 3 head coach of the year awards, one French Cup, 4 missed cup finals as underdog (3 French cups, one conference), no championship, best place finish 2nd). One save. I think I won't retire just yet, the team plays amazing football and I'd like to get one championship or one ECL with Montpellier first.

[chewbaccaloveaddiction]

Highly recommend this start to a save, start in lower leagues and don't renew your contract or resign after a season to move around until you find a team.

• Started in France 3rd tier at Orleans, won the league, resigned
• got the job at an almost relegated Metz in Ligue 1, 5th qualified for EL, resigned
• got the at Venezia who failed promotion to Serie A, won Serie B, got an offer from Fiorentina in december
• had to start a rebuild and got attached to these players stayed there until 2037, build the best team in the world, won everything, became a club legend
• resigned and went on holiday with yearly autosaves, Klopp replaced me won another CL and keep dominating domestically, great end to this save

 

[442isDead]