Manage Southampton on Football Manager 2026

[skintsaint]

20 minutes ago, SambaMaverick said:

Yeah no real concerns about that, but those increases then put me about £300k/week in the red on my wage budget. I've sold/released a few to get it down to the right level, but now I have no scope to improve the side for the Premier League.

Season expectations and wage budgets etc need to take the increases into account, surely.

Its in the latest patch :

[Matthew Le God]

2 minutes ago, skintsaint said:

Its in the latest patch :

Yep, it is bug that is hopefully now fixed rather than a data issue.

[Matthew Le God]

22 hours ago, skintsaint said:

spacebar is back!

How to activate it in the settings

 

[CSA96]

I love how MLG feels like he has to put on his armour and ride into battle to defend FM's honour like he's one of the developers or the studio director, rather than someone who just estimates attribute numbers as a hobby alongside his day job 

[Weston Super Saint]

8 hours ago, CSA96 said:

I love how MLG feels like he has to put on his armour and ride into battle to defend FM's honour like he's one of the developers or the studio director, rather than someone who just estimates attribute numbers as a hobby alongside his day job 

It's very cute.

[AlexLaw76]

I have played the update.

Less bugs, space bar works like it did previously. Game still very easy to turn off as the UI is still fucking terrible.

 

 

[S-Clarke]

Just now, AlexLaw76 said:

I have played the update.

Less bugs, space bar works like it did previously. Game still very easy to turn off as the UI is still fucking terrible.

 

 

Until the UI is made better, or the modding community are given more autonomy to make bigger UI changes, then it's a dead game as far as I'm concerned. It may be a couple of versions away - hopefully it comes back to life. I see it as that transition from Championship Manger to FM, that took a couple of release cycles.

Although CM to FM was at a time when the UI/Modding community was less important, so it's a pretty big stopper now.

[Tommy]

18 hours ago, Matthew Le God said:

How to activate it in the settings

 

laughable this is a setting and not just core functionality, and its just so typically indicative of this UI that there are so many clicks to turn it on. 

[Willo of Whiteley]

FM is one of those games that is better to play every three or four years.

[Matthew Le God]

12 minutes ago, Willo of Whiteley said:

FM is one of those games that is better to play every three or four years.

You can continue saves from old versions.  For example a savegame you had on FM23 or FM24 can be loaded up on FM26.

Edited Friday at 19:13 by Matthew Le God

[Willo of Whiteley]

7 minutes ago, Matthew Le God said:

You can continue saves from old versions.  For example a savegame you had on FM23 or FM24 can be loaded up on FM26.

Is there any benefit? Genuine question

[RedArmy]

Is Romeu in the squad yet?

[Matthew Le God]

26 minutes ago, Willo of Whiteley said:

Is there any benefit? Genuine question

You can move your FM23 or FM24 team to FM26 and see them in the new graphics engine. Plus all the other improvements FM26 has. Obviously many people still have issues with FM26, particularly for the UI, so you may not see it as worth it. But savegame transfer is a very cool feature in principle. 

[Matthew Le God]

3 minutes ago, RedArmy said:

Is Romeu in the squad yet?

He has been moved over in the database by the Spanish research team, but that database hasn't been extracted to any public update yet. When SI do a data update, Romeu should be at Saints and Will Still will be removed.

[ZepSaint]

@Matthew Le God

How do I go about getting access to the 'demo' /  part-season of FM26 ?

[Matthew Le God]

8 minutes ago, ZepSaint said:

@Matthew Le God

How do I go about getting access to the 'demo' /  part-season of FM26 ?

To get the free demo, go onto Steam or the Epic games stores and click the demo button

Steam

https://share.google/fkEY7T4PPfcq63x35

Epic games 

https://share.google/3SSyIEz7qbHtnZ4cm

 

[ZepSaint]

47 minutes ago, Matthew Le God said:

To get the free demo, go onto Steam or the Epic games stores and click the demo button

Steam

https://share.google/fkEY7T4PPfcq63x35

Epic games 

https://share.google/3SSyIEz7qbHtnZ4cm

 

Not a good start, no bloody audio !

[Matthew Le God]

4 minutes ago, ZepSaint said:

Not a good start, no bloody audio !

What audio were you expecting? FM has never had menu music.

It has match sounds and competition music like the official Champions League music.

[AlexLaw76]

Like tens of thousands of others, I am done with this game.

Some things are an improvement, but the vast majority of the game are very much inferior to FM24. Just to test this, I played FM24 this morning, and bar the lack of logos, lack of in/out of possession tactics, and slightly clunkier match day 3D graphics, the game is so far ahead of the new version.

Until now, I was pretty 'meh' about buying FM26. Now having a play with FM24 this morning, realising FM26 so far worse than I initially thought, it is verging on criminal that the FM community were asked to pay full price for a game advertised as it was (2 years in the making!!!), to being an absolute shit show of bugs, ignoring the horrific game play it offers via the terrible UI.

If I do buy FM27 (previously, this was never in question), I certainly wont do at release day..... 

[Danwulfe]

10 hours ago, AlexLaw76 said:

Like tens of thousands of others, I am done with this game.

Some things are an improvement, but the vast majority of the game are very much inferior to FM24. Just to test this, I played FM24 this morning, and bar the lack of logos, lack of in/out of possession tactics, and slightly clunkier match day 3D graphics, the game is so far ahead of the new version.

Until now, I was pretty 'meh' about buying FM26. Now having a play with FM24 this morning, realising FM26 so far worse than I initially thought, it is verging on criminal that the FM community were asked to pay full price for a game advertised as it was (2 years in the making!!!), to being an absolute shit show of bugs, ignoring the horrific game play it offers via the terrible UI.

If I do buy FM27 (previously, this was never in question), I certainly wont do at release day..... 

Longer than two years sadly.

It was worked on along side FM24.

[maysie]

Started a save as Saints on XBOX S as get it free with gamepass and it's really clunky - stuff that was easy to do on a console with one button now take filtering through loads of screens.

I must say though @Matthew Le God, the Saints database eerily similar to real life. Wasn't able to sign a better GK or Striker than I had. My xG is through the roof but none of the cunts up front can score. To make matters worst both McCarthy and Bazuna got 3 month injuries and I currently have George Long in goal.

 

Edited Sunday at 22:15 by maysie

[Weston Super Saint]

8 hours ago, maysie said:

Started a save as Saints on XBOX S as get it free with gamepass and it's really clunky - stuff that was easy to do on a console with one button now take filtering through loads of screens.

I must say though @Matthew Le God, the Saints database eerily similar to real life. Wasn't able to sign a better GK or Striker than I had. My xG is through the roof but none of the cunts up front can score. To make matters worst both McCarthy and Bazuna got 3 month injuries and I currently have George Long in goal.

 

Worse?

[Matthew Le God]

19 hours ago, maysie said:

I must say though @Matthew Le God, the Saints database eerily similar to real life.

That is what I aim for!

[RedArmy]

4 hours ago, Matthew Le God said:

That is what I aim for!

You had barely anything to do with it. We had a massive turnover in players.

[Matthew Le God]

23 minutes ago, RedArmy said:

You had barely anything to do with it. We had a massive turnover in players.

Nonsense. A large number of 1st team players remain from last season, and that was a season you didn't have a FM game to see. The new scholars are added, plus those that were added for the previous season. There hs been a huge amount of backroom staff changes. There is a vast amount of club data changed. In total many thousands of Saints data changes since FM24. Even though new signings are largely done by their old researchers, I tweaked some of the new players. 

Edited 14 hours ago by Matthew Le God

[Weston Super Saint]

8 hours ago, Matthew Le God said:

Nonsense. A large number of 1st team players remain from last season, and that was a season you didn't have a FM game to see. The new scholars are added, plus those that were added for the previous season. There hs been a huge amount of backroom staff changes. There is a vast amount of club data changed. In total many thousands of Saints data changes since FM24. Even though new signings are largely done by their old researchers, I tweaked some of the new players. 

Why?

What makes you better than the researchers of the clubs they played for?

[benjii]

On 11/11/2025 at 21:07, Tommy said:

following posted on Reddit, the first bit about just skipping through to matches is probably my biggest gripe with the game. They’ve somehow managed to destroy all the immersion that made it such a wonderful game to play. 
 

“

Just now, the biggest Football Manager streamer in South Korea someone who usually pulls between 10,000 to 40,000 viewers every time he plays FM has officially quit FM26.

He mentioned that SI had sponsored him, so he started a 3-season playthrough out of courtesy. Honestly, he said he wanted to stop after the first season but felt obliged to continue because of the sponsorship.

Despite the deal, his review was brutally honest:

“Whether it’s checking records or looking at other clubs, I just don’t feel like doing anything. I end up just skipping straight to the matches.”

“FM is a text-based game, but now reading the text feels stressful. That’s the biggest problem.”

“The in-game graphics have improved a lot, but the match engine still feels disappointing.”

“If you just want to watch matches, you might as well play the FC series. There’s no reason to play FM anymore.”

“I have a lot more to say, but since this is a sponsored stream, I’ll stop here.”

“Lastly… don’t bother sponsoring next time just make FM27 a good game.”

And with that, he ended the stream.
It’s safe to say he won’t be launching FM26 again.”

 

https://www.reddit.com/r/footballmanagergames/s/uOEOILovgq
 

 

Probably good for his long term health, TBF.

[skintsaint]