danej

This makes me think of the other aspect once again - for which type of players will you only "half heartedly" try to sell them (or perhaps not at all, even though in some ways it might be tempting to try and sell the player)? Are there any type of players where you might not push it as hard to try and get rid of them? Like the already discussed case of Casemiro. I see you point regarding him. He is very valuable to the team, and besides it might be much more difficult selling a player who just arrived at the club. Even 6 months after arrival it is often still a bit more difficult to sell the player I feel. Easier once he has been at the club for a year or longer. Anyway, I am also thinking of Man Utd players like Raphael Varane, Luke Shaw, Fred, Wan-Bissaka, Athony Martial, Jadon Sancho and Harry Maguire. Players that I would for various prefer to sell if possible to obtain decent bids (often because of high wages relative to ability, or injury proneness. Age also a factor). The mentioned players are often difficult to sell, at least in the first window. I would think that it might be best to not push too hard in such cases, at least regarding some of them. In other words - perhaps it is like, the more the player could contribute to your team, the more careful should you be in his case. Yes, try to sell him, but more gently, don't p*ss him off, at least only slightly. So that in case no decent deal can be struck (because ot no bids of the player rejects the club), the morale of the player is still decent or can soon be brought back to a decent level, so that you can use him on the field, at least untill the next transfer window when once again attempts will be made to sell him. Any thoughts of this dilemma? Feels like a complex issue, each player is different, different trade off for different types of player and how useful they are to you. Often quite difficult to decide what is a good balance for a given player regarding this, try to push out and force the player to accept decent bids vs. keep him semi-happy in case he doesn't leave. Edit: Perhaps one of my weaknesses is that I might sometimes have to low a threshold for when to try to axe a player, and/or how hard I try to push him out. I certainly many times have found myself in the situation where I have pushed a player hard, p*ssed him off, I still couldn't get rid of him, at least not for a fee that I would accept and where the player would accept to go. And then I am stuck with a moaning player who could have been useful but isn't because of his (understandable) moaning, and he drains my wage budget without much benefit. On the other hand it would be a shame to generally be too soft because of being afraid of being stuck with unhappy players who turned out to be impossible to sell. Difficult dilemma.

So when would you give up selling a player in the current transfer window? When would you take him off the transfer list in order to reduce negative impact on morale? Would you always keep an unwanted player transfer listed untill the window is closed no matter what, no matter whether no interest after all usual actions have been tried?

Interesting. So, for example, if you offer out a player for zero locked, it is more likely to get a bid that if you offer out for the same price (zero) unlocked? Interesting. So, for example, if you offer out a player for zero locked, it is more likely to get a bid that if you offer out for the same price (zero) unlocked? This also makes me wonder - perhaps the best thing is to do all you can to push anybody out whom you want to get rid of, no matter which sort of player? It all depends on the chance of actually a decent/useful bid coming in. Example that comes to mind: Casemiro at the start of a Man Utd save. He is one of many whom I would like to get rid of. Not a clear cut case, but to me he is slightly too old old and not superior enough to justify his 300k p/w wage. Without pushing him out, from experience I certainly won't receive any bids. He is more than good enough to be a regular starter, so it would be a shame to have to stick him long term in the U21's in case he is severely disgruntled and I don't get any decent bids in for him no matter how hard I try to push him out. What to do. Such cases can be a dilemma, at least to a semi-inexperienced player like me. Most cases are much more clear cut, but not this kind.

How to handle this dilemma? I would think that you could go to two extremes or somewhere in the middle: 1. Keep the players transfer listed and keep him on "surplus to requirements" squad status. The aim being to maximize the chance of a bid coming in at some point. You can of course also do all sorts of things to p*ss the player off in order to make him accept more potential offers, want out at any price. But for me subjectively that is not an option, feels like gaming the system, borderline cheating, manipulating the player to leave. 2. Take the player off the transfer list and raise his squad back somewhere above "surplus to requirements" at the moment that it becomes clear that you probably aren't going to get an offer for him in the foreseeable future. In other words, at the moment when you have tried anything you are willing to try to get rid of the player, have lowered the asking price to your minimum, raised the proposed wage contribution to you maximum, lowered a potential proposed loan deal to the minimum wage contribution percentage that you are willing to accept etc., and nothing happens, no bids, not interest, nothing. With this mindset, you immediately take the player off the transfer list, You try again on Deadline Day and if still no bids wait untill the next transfer window opens. The aim being to minimize the potential negative impact the transfer listed player could have on squad morale, dressing room athmosphere etc. Or as mentioned, could be somewhere in between these to extremes, another variant. What do you think is the best, and why? Personally I err towards option 2. But I am not sure that it is necessary. I don't really know what is objectively the best trade off between the two aims - maximizing the chance of getting rid of the player quickly (option 1) vs. maximizing the chance of building or maintaining a good squad morale / dressing room athmosphere (option 2). I would prefer option 1 if possible. But the question is whether that style has too many negative implications regarding squad morale.

How to start out with a Man Utd rebuild, whom to get rid of? Here is my take on it. Bear in mind, this is written a couple of weeks into the save, which gives an initial indication of how easy it is to get rid of the given player. Tom Heaton Pretty bad and old reserve keeper on relatively high wages, 65k p/w. I luckily managed to sell him to Lyon for 1.1m. A splendid fee for a pretty useless, old, budget draining player. Lyon was also the only team who made a bid. Scott McTominay Just slightly better than youngsters such as Mainoo and Iqbal, and thus not worth keeping on his much higher wage and no potential due to him being in his prime more or less. I was lucky to get a good loan to probably buy bid from Arsenal. The loan is converted into a buy if the qualify for Europa League. At first they only wanted a mandatory buy if the qualified for the Champions League, but I managed to negotiate. Deal worth 30.75m + 20% of the next sale (not profit of next sale, but next sale). Raphael Varane Brilliant player, but injury prone which is pretty much a deal breaker. I would only sell him for a decent fee, probably half his market value or more. It looked like I wouldn't receive any offers, but after a weeks time, Real Madrid came in with a decent loan to mandatory buy offer worth 28m. Just about good enough, his market value being slightly above 50m. Btw, his wage of 350k p/w is also a negative, but not a reason for me to want to sell him. Fred Bad player, just useless. As with McTominay, backup option and only slightly better than some good youngsters whom I would rather play to develop them. I won't sell him at any price since he still has two years left on his deal. But as with most players, will sell him if I get a bid of at least around half of his market value, or I will try to loan him out. At this moment in time I don't know whether I will be able to sell him. I have accepted loan to buy offers from Porto and Wolves, but it is uncertain whether he wants to join any of them. Most likely he will accept on of their bids. Hope so. The deals are worth around 17m which is way above what I would accept, I probably would have taken half. Btw, it also took a weeks time before any bids came in, at first looked like I would struggle to sell him. Anthony Martial Good player. But injury prone and on too much money for basically a squad player, 250k p/w. Would sell him for half of market value. Again, took around a week before useful bids came in, so looked bleak to begin with. I only received one decent bid, but one is enough: PSG came in with a loan to mandatory buy offer, deal worth around 18m, just around what I would accept. At the moment he is negotiating terms with them. I think that he'll be going to PSG. Jadon Sancho On too much money for being a squad player, 275k p/w. I would sell him for half market value or loan with 100% wages coverede. But it looks unlikely that I will get him out the door. Only useless loan bids with poor wage coverage have come in, little interest in him. Not the worst thing that could happen though. He is young. Eventually he might be worth his wage, or a decent bid will probably come in at some point in the future. Casemiro Among the best players of the club. But not massively better than others who could be regular starters. Old, will start to deteriorate. On a lot of money, 300k. As with Sancho though, even worse, not a single bid, no interest. Highly unlikely that I can get rid of him this window. I fear that I will be stuck with him for years. Well, at least he is a very good player, at least for now and probably for at least a couple of seasons. Ethan Laird Injury prone, recall to sell him when possible (end of July, after the 4 weeks have passed). Better to sell before he might catch a major injury, as with all injury prone players. Time will tell whether there is interest in him. Harry Maguire Useful squad player, but on too much money, 200k p/w. No offers so far, looking difficult to get rid of him this window. As with Casemiro, I fear that I am stuck with him for years. This is worse since he is a squad player at most. He also got a 2 month injury after a week of the save, that doesn't help of course. Luke Shaw Good player and slightly better than my other left backs. But injury prone which is a deal breaker. I had a good loan to mandatory buy deal agreed with Tottenham, deal worth around 41m I think. But the bastard turned them down. No further interest in him, so I probably can't get rid of him this window. Wan-Bissaka Backup right back and only slightly better than youngsters Brandon Williams and Ethan Laird. Thus not worth his 100k p/w wage. I had a good loan to mandatory buy deal agreed with Aston Villa, as well as a loan deal to Everton, but he turned them down. Some interest in him, but no recent bids. He could be going somewhere this window, 50-50 probably. Marcel Sabitzer I will cancel his loan when possible 4 weeks into the save. Monthly fee + wage coverage much to high for a backup. Wout Weghorst Same as with Sabitzer Jack Butland Same as with Sabitzer I am also trying to unload a lot of crap youngsters, including everybody injury prone and everybody who don't have Premier League PA according to his coach report. Some sales have been completed or are on the verge of being completed as seen in the pics below. As for ins, we'll see. I like to play with harsh restrictions regarding ins. Basically only consider signing a player if my DoF initiates a bid for him (I will cancel most of the rubbish DoF-deals), or if a player is being "extensively" scouted, more than normal scouting, or he i being mentioned a someone who should be a top target. With those restriction in mind, among my initial signings could be for instance some of these players: Alex Scott, Livakovic (keeper). Gabriel Barbosa, Otavio (27 y/o central midfielder from Porto). I will probably try to get Skriniar (central defender from Inter) on a free next summer 2023 but we'll see. If only real life football was as easy as FM. Unloading overpayed deadwood that should be unloadable. Farming great value for money players easy peasy. The biggest challenge when playing FM is to avoid it being too easy and thus too boring. Easier said than done for me when I also find it difficult not to strive for succes.

Interesting experiene regarding this topic. Just finished my first season since beginning to experiment more with pre-season training. See pic below. Form was excellent up untill April. Then it totally tanked. Cost me the Premier League title. In theory this could be because I only did two weeks of heavy physical pre-season training. Enough to keep up the form untill April, but not enough to last the entire season? Although it could be random as well. Not a big sample, and an absurdly congested fixture list during that time, 18 matches during April and May. Btw the 0-3 defeat vs. Aston Villa should be disregarded, I fielded the U18 team for that match since there was nothing to play for.

As the other guy mentioned above - my experience so far suggests that wage has nothing to do with it. Misleading when that is being mentioned. It feels more like, either a player gets the WP, or he doesn't. Possibly makes no difference how much money you offer him. I am no expert in this, but it is my impression so far. WP is probably decided on other criteria which are accesible somewhere, don't remember where, probably mentioned in game as well if I remember correctly. In any case it is remarkable how some players, typically youngsters can get a WP even on a very low wage. Whereas others with a much higher wage can't get a WP. Perhaps also implies that wage has little to no significance.

@nick1408 and @bosque, Rashidi gave his input on this already, see above. If I understand him correctly, he thinks that the best course is to train boot camp style for the entire pre-season except for the week where you play your first important match. I think his idea is good, he is usually spot on. Besides, I have never seen anyone argue convincingly for another approach. If you want to spend more time optimizing, you could micro manage injury prone players, occasionally lowering their training intensity if needed. For most of us it might be too much work for too little gain though. As Rashidi/Daljit one time pointed out to me during a live disussion on Twitch. And I think he is right.

This reminds me: I feel like my players aged 15-17 often develop rather poorly. I wonder whether part of it is because I occasionally switch them to another squad? In order for them to avoid weeks of congested fixtures with their "primary" squad. In other words, I guess I wonder whether there is sort of a penalty for often swithing the squad of a certain player. Prime example: 17-year old Kobe Mainoo of Man Utd. Tremendous talent, the player with the highest PA at the club. He has barely developed during the first 6-7 months. "Slightly better" mental attributes, although not a single attribute that improved by 1 or more, just some green arrows slightly upwards. No significant improvement on either the technical or physical attributes. I wonder whether Mainoo's lack of development is due to me often switching him between the first team squad and the U18 squad, sometimes even briefly in the U21's, in order for him to get more training sessions. Once again, I wonder if there is sort or a penalty if a player often switches squads. Otherwise I don't understand why he develops so poorly. In theory, my approach should be great - switching sqads at times so that a reasonably fit player doesn't unnecessarily lose training sessions by being stuck in a squad with congested fixtures and little training.

Thanks for the clarification, this is very helpful. By the way, I am curious as to how our experience with injuries is so different. Even with just two weeks of heavy physical pre-season training which has been my standard so far (I'll probably change it according to your tip), I would think that on average I get three 2+ weeks injuries, about one of those injuries being 4+ weeks. I guess it is a random thing. Or because I almost always play short saves and stick to the original squad. And that I often have a few injury prone players in the first team squad, like the mentioned Luke Shaw with Man Utd. I haven't kept track, but I think the injury prone players are much more likely to pick up moderate to major injuries during a heavy physical training period, compared to non-injury prone players.

Interesting, thanks. I wonder what Daljit/Rashidi does specifically. In one of this FM23 videos he says pretty much like you, do heavy physical pre-season training at least two weeks. However, in another video he seems to only do a boot camp training regime for the first week. In any case, in my experience it is impossible to avoid a fair amount of moderate to major injuries with a heavy physical training regime, even if only for 1-2 weeks. The injury prone players are at major risk. In my most recent save with Man Utd, Luke Glass Legs Shaw broke his ankle during the first week and was out for three months. Something similar usually happens for me. On average I would say that around 3-4 first team players get injured for at least a couple of weeks during the first two weeks of heavy physical pre-season training. However, I guess it is still worth it. That still makes at least 80% of the players making it through this phase without getting injured, or only for a few days. By the way, I don't use any weird training regime for this initial phase. Just the preset heavy early schedule.

So, what is a good way to do this part? IIRC, the single source that I appreciate the most, BustTheNet/Rashidi/Daljit thinks one should do such a regime for at least the first 1-2 weeks of pre-season. However, I am uncertain when it comes to the details, how to min max this. Questions: For how many days should you do a boot camp/heavy physical training regime? I think that pre-season pretty much always starts on a Monday. So, for how long? Untill Sunday week 1? Sunday week 2? Along the same lines, when should you play your first friendly? Saturday week 2 for instance? Something else? Should you stop boot camp training after the first friendly match? After the second match? Something else? Input regarding these questions, as well as regarding other relevant similar aspects, is greatly appreciated.

As the headline implies: Should one in certain situations consider moving a player temporarily from one squad to another? If yes, when? There is often a congested fixture list. It goes for any squad, not only the senior squad, but also the U21's and U18's. Regarding the two latter squads, there can be periods of the season where the team participates in 2-3 competitions at the same time, effectively creating many weeks with two matches. My own current stand on this (am still experimenting) is that I'll mostly ignore players aged 18 and above. Just keep them in their "real" squad with very few exceptions. However, I am inclined to often move squads temporarily with decent players aged 17 and younger. Due to training seeming to matter much more for this age group. So, in practice I would move a lot of the U18 players temporarily to either the first team squad or the U18's for a few days where the U18's have little training due to lots of matches. In order to keep players training and not resting. BustTheNet/Rashidi/Daljit is the one who inspired my to look into this. In one of his FM23 videos, about training IIRC, he discusses that he usually keeps first team players aged 17 or younger in the U18 squad when the first team have two or more matches in a week. Just pulls the player manually into the match day squad, but otherwise keeping him in the U18's. With the same goal, having the player train more and rest less. If he doesn't start the match that is. What do you think? Input appreciated. In any case I am glad I have recently become more aware of this. A congested match schedule - for any squad - could have quite a negative effect on traning, resulting in very few training sessions actually being conducted.

An extra thought on all this - if I remember correctly, there is often a lot of avoidant behavior in OCD, like with anxiety and avoidant personality disorder. Avoiding triggers could be problematic long term. Like you narrow your zone of comfort. I am no expert, and I don't have the answers as to how to do exposure succesfully. Probably highly individual in any case. But I do think that to some extent, long term it would be best to expose oneself somewhat to triggers or whatever to call it. Like with the uncormfort of "breaking the rules". Register the discomfort, but not act on it, not run, not avoid. To some extent at least. It probably can't be too much too fast either. But I would think that an important long term goal would be gradually more exposure, and thus with time gradually enlarging your zone of comfort. Also goes in the game I would guess. Instead of creatning ever more rules/restrictions, perhaps to some extent play game in a way the triggers discomfort. Be in it, endure it. Often the discomfort eventually fades I think, if you endure it long enough. Exposure.

I experimented a bit more. My updated opinion on good "automatic" settings (if SI would create the option): Generally do what Rashidi/BustTheNet and most other experienced players seem to do - just use the automated rest settings, but put the full green heart/the far right heart on full intensity. For all squads, not just the first team squad. Just leave it at this, ignore the recommendation of the physio, don't ever tweak manually, apart from the occasional rest day to regular starters during fixture congestion. The one exception being the initial part of pre-season. The part with a heavy physical training regime, boot camp style. Which seems to be the best way to start the season, Rashidi and others also seem to think so. Anyway, my experience is that for those initial couple of weeks of boot camp (like the preset "heavy early" regime, or Rashidi's boot camp), you get too many injuries if you use those automated settings. Where in practice every first team member trains on double intensity every day, regardless how susceptible they are to injuries etc. This is the one instance where I would apply my idea mentioned above. Essentially, for those initial couple of weeks of boot camp, I would daily check the physio recommendation of the first team squad (see the pic at the bottom to check out my view including physio recommendation). And put everyone down to normal intensity when the physio recommends half intensity. Usually, a single day at normal intensity is enough for the given player. The day after he is usually less injury prone so to speak, with the physio recommendation being back at normal or double. So the next day it is usually fine to stick the player back up at the automatic double intensity setting. For the rest of the season, apart from those initial couple of weeks, my impression is that it is best to do as Daljit recommens and forget about all this. Just use automatic settings, but tweak the full heart to double intensity. It doesn't give too many injuries apart from the initial boot camp period. Please let me know if anyone has other experiences. My experience with this is still rather limited and I can't say for sure that I am right. However, this detail in the game intrigues me at the moment and I will keep focusing on this for a while yet I think. If you hardly have any injury prone players in your first team squad, you may not need to do this. But I generally like to make few transfers and stick to my original squad to a large extent. So I am usually stuck with quite a few injury prone players. Like Martial, Varane and Luke Shaw in the Utd squad.

I experimented a bit more. My updated opinion on good "automatic" settings (if SI would create the option): Generally do what Rashidi/BustTheNet and most other experienced players seem to do - just use the automated rest settings, but put the full green heart/the far right heart on full intensity. For all squads, not just the first team squad. Just leave it at this, ignore the recommendation of the physio, don't ever tweak manually, apart from the occasional rest day to regular starters during fixture congestion. The one exception being the initial part of pre-season. The part with a heavy physical training regime, boot camp style. Which seems to be the best way to start the season, Rashidi and others also seem to think so. Anyway, my experience is that for those initial couple of weeks of boot camp (like the preset "heavy early" regime, or Rashidi's boot camp), you get too many injuries if you use those automated settings. Where in practice every first team member trains on double intensity every day, regardless how susceptible they are to injuries etc. This is the one instance where I would apply my idea mentioned above. Essentially, for those initial couple of weeks of boot camp, I would daily check the physio recommendation of the first team squad (see the pic at the bottom to check out my view including physio recommendation). And put everyone down to normal intensity when the physio recommends half intensity. Usually, a single day at normal intensity is enough for the given player. The day after he is usually less injury prone so to speak, with the physio recommendation being back at normal or double. So the next day it is usually fine to stick the player back up at the automatic double intensity setting. For the rest of the season, apart from those initial couple of weeks, my impression is that it is best to do as Daljit recommens and forget about all this. Just use automatic settings, but tweak the full heart to double intensity. It doesn't give too many injuries apart from the initial boot camp period. Please let me know if anyone has other experiences. My experience with this is still rather limited and I can't say for sure that I am right. However, this detail in the game intrigues me at the moment and I will keep focusing on this for a while yet I think. If you hardly have any injury prone players in your first team squad, you may not need to do this. But I generally like to make few transfers and stick to my original squad to a large extent. So I am usually stuck with quite a few injury prone players. Like Martial, Varane and Luke Shaw in the Utd squad.

A supplemental idea: Regarding training intensity, the game should have an automatic setting like this: "Maximum one level higher than physio recommendation". In my experience, this would be a great automatic setup. The physio is generally a bit overcautious in his recommendations. So it would be a good regime to stick to your default settings (I think most experienced managers use the in-game default setting except that they up the full green heart (far right) to "double intensity", as BustTheNet also recommends. In practice this idea primarily means that no players would train at double intensity if the physio recommends half intensity. Which I think would be great, and nothing else needed to have a good automatic training intensity setting.

A supplemental idea: There should be a setting like this: "Maximum one level higher than physio recommendation". In my experience, this would be a great automatic setup. The physio is generally a bit overcautious in his recommendations. So it would be a good regime to stick to your default settings (I think most experienced managers use the in-game default setting except that the up the full green heart (far right) to "double intensity". In practice this idea primarily means that no players would train at double intensity if the physio recommends half intensity. Which I think would be great, and nothing else needed to have a good automatic training intensity setting.

Not to my knowledge. Brilliant idea however. SI should create such an option. I would also find it incredibly valuable. I actually suggested to SI that they create such an option in future versions of the game (see below). Thanks again for the brilliant idea and that you mentioned this. I have been having similar thoughts for a long time and this post was inspirational. It may be a detail, but such an option would in my opinion be a significant improvement to the game. It would create an improved, and at the same time more realistic, automated setting system regarding training intensity.

I think there should be such and option in game. Not only for the first team squad, but for all squads. I think such a setting is better as well as more realistic than the current alternatives for automatic setting which are rigid and doesn't evaluate the player on an individual basis. Furthermore it seems like the physio's opionion on the players are almost always pretty sound. Who can at this moment in time deal with double intensity, who should be on half intensity because he just got back from injury or is generally injury prone etc. See the thread below in case you need to see more regarding what I mean, the same topic being discussed there. Also see this pic which makes it easier to understand what I mean - as a supplement to the five settings toward the top of the screen (the two red hearts, one yellow, two green), there should simply be a box to tick on/off "use physio recommendation for training intensity". Alternatively, in each of the current five categories, you could have a further option besides "No pitch or gym work", "Half intensity", "Normal intensity" and "Double Intensity": "Automatically according to physio recommendation". I think I personally would leave the two red hearts as they are by default "No pitch or gym work" and "Half intensity" respectively, as shown in the pic. But that I would use automated physio recommendation for the three "top end hearts" if such an option was available.

Yes I am also surprised that the club lacks bodies. However, there is an argument that I could loan out fewer players yes. It is a dilemma though. My understanding is that any given player, aged 18 or older, almost always develops the best if given regular first team football. With very few exceptions such as loaning him out to a semi-professional club. Speaking of this, I usually keep pretty much everyone from every youth intake, at least if I manage at at least League One or Championship. Crap youngsters on low salaries are good for filling out the youth squads. So I guess that the problem will not be as serious over time, once the youth squads are filled up with an abundance of poor players on low salaries.

The situation: My current team (Man Utd, but could be pretty much any team both in England and abroad) often lacks bodies in the youth squads (U21 + U18 combined, the total picture). Because I loan out most players aged 18 and above (except for those in the first team squad), I am usually short on bodies for the youth squads. Apart from the end of each season, after the annual youth intake. This doesn't give a problem for the U18 squad in itself. The matchday squad just gets filled with greyed out youngsters. I don't have a problem with that. However, it creates problems for the U21 matchdays. Unfortunately, the staff doesn't pick greyed out players for vacant slots in the U21 matchday squads. Instead they use players from the U18 although I never instructed them to do so. The problems with this is that: 1. Some of the U18 players get overworked since in reality the play for both the U18's and U21's. They generally have a too high match load and too low condition. 2. I imagine that the "dual team" U18 players train and develop worse. Since they often get picked for the U21 matchday squad instead of doing their regular training with the U18's. They seem to miss out on a lot of training this way. Unfortunately I don't see a way to make U18 players unavailable for the U21 games. I wish there was an option to do so. It seems like the least lousy alternative is to permanently move the required number of U18 players to the U21 squad (perhaps preferably move up the positions needed, e.g. move up a left back if one is needed in the U21's). Although that might be slightly bad for the development of the moved up player. I haven't checked, but I suspect that the U18 staff is generally better for 15-17 year olds than the U21 staff. I imagine that the U18 staff usually have a higher Working with Youngsters attributes. Otherwise what would even be the point of having both a U21 and a U18 squad, if you could just mix players totally randomly regardless of age (as long as they are not to old to play in the U18 team). Any input on this? I wish there was a better solution than the one I described. But I struggle to see any decent ways of dealing with this.

Yeah it is a bit amusing. Speaking of this, do you also have the impression that it has been like this pretty much forever? That is my impression, but I barely played the game before FM21 (as well as Championship Manager etc. back in the day), so I can't say for sure. It would be a bit funny if a big part of the SI staff are hard core Utd-fans and give the team a boost year after year. Sure looks like it.

How strong are the various teams in the Prem? Not least, how often would the given team, led by an AI manager, win the Prem? I mostly ask because I am curious where Man Utd stands in the hierarchy. Until recently I thought that Man City and Liverpool are by far the strongest teams in joint 1st position. With Man Utd a distant third. I still believe most of this is true. However, the more season I have played in the Prem, the more I get the impression that Man Utd are once again much stronger in FM than IRL. Much weaker than Liverpool and Man City. But strong enough to win the title perhaps 15-20% of the time. I also ask because I contemplate whether Man Utd, along with Liverpool and Man City, are one of teams that is too boring to manage. Because they are so strong that it is almost impossible to not dominate, almost no matter how extreme save restrictions that you are using. Btw it puzzles me why Man Utd seems OP in game year after year. I suspect that most of the the SI staff are hard-core Utd fans who have some To Madeira tricks up their sleeves.