Manage Southampton on Football Manager 2026

[AlexLaw76]

[SNSUN]

20 minutes ago, AlexLaw76 said:

Memories unlocked

[Saint Fan CaM]

20 hours ago, Matthew Le God said:

We've had a two-year wait, with the last version, FM24, selling over 17 million copies.

Some huge improvements are on their way for FM26! You can’t complain, this year is simply a ‘data update’!

The biggest one that will make the most difference is that Football Manager will no longer be made using an in house engine. Instead it will use all the benefits of the Unity game engine, which will see huge advances in the user interface and the match graphics.

Womens football is also making its debut, so you can manage Southampton’s men's and women's teams. Plus, the game now has the Premier League licence for when you get Southampton promoted!

 

So when is it released?

[Matthew Le God]

Just now, Saint Fan CaM said:

So when is it released?

No release date announced yet

In the past, FMs have been released in late October/early November. Those who pre-ordered had early access a few weeks beforehand. For example FM24 released on 6th November and early access was from 19th October.

[Matthew Le God]

Who is going to give managing the women's team a go?

[Matthew Le God]

18 hours ago, AlexLaw76 said:

I had a Wycombe Wanderers save on the first Premier Manager game. I called myself Ian Branfoot, still regret that decsion now! 

It had a great theme song...

But nothing beats this...

 

Edited 14 August, 2025 by Matthew Le God

[santolijador]

5 hours ago, Matthew Le God said:

No release date announced yet

In the past, FMs have been released in late October/early November. Those who pre-ordered had early access a few weeks beforehand. For example FM24 released on 6th November and early access was from 19th October.

How much do the researchers know about the dev process? Were you aware before others of the shambles that was supposed to be FM25? Did they give you the silent treatment as well as the rest of the fanbase? (Particularly annoyingly after having promised to be more transparent etc.) - were you at all concerned about the franchise dying with the FM25 failures and Unity and all that? I am slightly concerned about the stuff they showed us in the last development update (iirc, spring/early summer last year?) which felt like a huge shift from the spreadsheet heavy game we have come to know and love in recent years. 

Edit - dev update will have been before that I'm sure actually - referring to the one before the cancelation

Edited 14 August, 2025 by santolijador

[Matthew Le God]

4 minutes ago, santolijador said:

How much do the researchers know about the dev process? Were you aware before others of the shambles that was supposed to be FM25? Did they give you the silent treatment as well as the rest of the fanbase? (Particularly annoyingly after having promised to be more transparent etc.) - were you at all concerned about the franchise dying with the FM25 failures and Unity and all that? I am slightly concerned about the stuff they showed us in the last development update (iirc, spring/early summer last year?) which felt like a huge shift from the spreadsheet heavy game we have come to know and love in recent years. 

Edit - dev update will have been before that I'm sure actually - referring to the one before the cancelation

How much do the researchers know about the dev process?

Not much. Apart from getting an idea of new features when they add new data fields into the database. Plus we get to test the game before the public see it.

Were you aware before others of the shambles that was supposed to be FM25? Did they give you the silent treatment as well as the rest of the fanbase? (Particularly annoyingly after having promised to be more transparent etc.)

We found out it was delayed and cancelled at the same time the public did.

Were you at all concerned about the franchise dying with the FM25 failures and Unity and all that?

No, the game was never going to end because of a year's delay. It makes too much money for SEGA for that to happen. Over 17 million copies of FM24 were sold.

I am slightly concerned about the stuff they showed us in the last development update (iirc, spring/early summer last year?) which felt like a huge shift from the spreadsheet heavy game we have come to know and love in recent years.

Can't say I've seen that. What do you think it has shifted towards? Changing from the in house game engine which restricts them, to Unity will make a huge difference. Not only in the graphics, but the user interface and pretty much every other aspect of the game. It'll still be a very stat-heavy game.

[benjii]

24 minutes ago, Matthew Le God said:

Who is going to give managing the women's team a go?

Does the new graphics engine cover changing rooms?

[kitch]

20 hours ago, Matthew Le God said:

Ultimate Soccer Manager in the mid 90s allowed you to take bungs, rig matches and set the price of pies! Plus it had inflation for everything, transfers, shop products, food, tickets etc so prices rose massively!😁

Ultimate Soccer Manager was the most fun, IMO. You could do all the above, plus expand your stadium and change kits/sponsors, IIRC?

[Matthew Le God]

28 minutes ago, Matthew Le God said:

Who is going to give managing the women's team a go?

 

4 minutes ago, benjii said:

Does the new graphics engine cover changing rooms?

 

[santolijador]

29 minutes ago, Matthew Le God said:

I am slightly concerned about the stuff they showed us in the last development update (iirc, spring/early summer last year?) which felt like a huge shift from the spreadsheet heavy game we have come to know and love in recent years.

Can't say I've seen that. What do you think it has shifted towards? Changing from the in house game engine which restricts them, to Unity will make a huge difference. Not only in the graphics, but the user interface and pretty much every other aspect of the game. It'll still be a very stat-heavy game.

Thanks for the insight. 

For the above, I was thinking of this dev update: https://www.footballmanager.com/news/development-update-football-manager-25

I think a lot of the FM community were particularly concerned with getting rid of the 'inbox' and making the game less heavy on things like the Data Hub and how they present data and information points in general. Certainly in those screenshots shared at the time, it felt more console/mobile game friendly. 

I should caveat this with the fact that I have, for my sins, a crazy amount of hours on FM and am terrified of drastic changes to the UI (though I welcome game engine and AI changes). I also understand that they have to open the game to more people, make it more accessible and this probably affects UI and so on from a business standpoint, even more so after the missed edition last year. 

In any case, I will inevitably get a skin for it that suits my style and that, but still...

Appreciate it will still be a data driven game, I just hope that they don't dumb things down too much over the coming years. 

[Yorkshire Saint]

22 hours ago, Lee On Solent Saint said:

Match Day on the Spectrum. Classic. Sensible Soccer for the Sega. The Daddy of them all was Football Director. That was such a fantastic management game. 

Remember player of the year ?

[SNSUN]

2 hours ago, santolijador said:

How much do the researchers know about the dev process? Were you aware before others of the shambles that was supposed to be FM25? Did they give you the silent treatment as well as the rest of the fanbase? (Particularly annoyingly after having promised to be more transparent etc.) - were you at all concerned about the franchise dying with the FM25 failures and Unity and all that? I am slightly concerned about the stuff they showed us in the last development update (iirc, spring/early summer last year?) which felt like a huge shift from the spreadsheet heavy game we have come to know and love in recent years. 

Edit - dev update will have been before that I'm sure actually - referring to the one before the cancelation

On the plus side, we never had to try to keep us in the Prem with the worst squad we'd had in years.

[Lee On Solent Saint]

33 minutes ago, Yorkshire Saint said:

Remember player of the year ?

Was that the game where you took shots and had to score? Think you got three attempts or something like that?

[Matthew Le God]

36 minutes ago, SNSUN said:

On the plus side, we never had to try to keep us in the Prem with the worst squad we'd had in years.

It would have been quite a challenge! Our squad was terrible in the database for the now never to be FM25.

[Disco Stu]

2 hours ago, Matthew Le God said:

I am slightly concerned about the stuff they showed us in the last development update (iirc, spring/early summer last year?) which felt like a huge shift from the spreadsheet heavy game we have come to know and love in recent years.

Can't say I've seen that. What do you think it has shifted towards? Changing from the in house game engine which restricts them, to Unity will make a huge difference. Not only in the graphics, but the user interface and pretty much every other aspect of the game. It'll still be a very stat-heavy game.

Based on the FM25 screenshots which showed a more simplified, tiled UI, it seems they've decided to shift their focus towards building their console playerbase.  Fair enough, that's where the money is, but it's a major shift for the prodominately PC using fanbase of Football Manager.

[Yorkshire Saint]

23 minutes ago, Lee On Solent Saint said:

Was that the game where you took shots and had to score? Think you got three attempts or something like that?

That's the one... Legendary 

[Matthew Le God]

6 minutes ago, Disco Stu said:

Based on the FM25 screenshots which showed a more simplified, tiled UI, it seems they've decided to shift their focus towards building their console playerbase.  Fair enough, that's where the money is, but it's a major shift for the prodominately PC using fanbase of Football Manager.

When you then click on those tiles it then goes to 'cards' which give you a huge amount of info. The tiles give you an overview, the underlying cards are the detail. It is not a dumbing down.

The tile and card system is explained in this development update for the cancelled FM25...

https://share.google/WhnNT94mOVZii3IQw

 

 

Edited 14 August, 2025 by Matthew Le God

[Lee On Solent Saint]

2 minutes ago, Yorkshire Saint said:

That's the one... Legendary 

Yep! Think I remember playing a Gary Lineker titled game too? Have to dig it out, still have a boxful of Spectrum 48k games in the loft.

[CB Fry]

6 minutes ago, Lee On Solent Saint said:

Yep! Think I remember playing a Gary Lineker titled game too? Have to dig it out, still have a boxful of Spectrum 48k games in the loft.

Gary Lineker's Hot Shot

[Lee On Solent Saint]

2 minutes ago, CB Fry said:

Gary Lineker's Hot Shot

Just checked. Gary Lineker's superstar soccer 

[SNSUN]

24 minutes ago, Matthew Le God said:

It would have been quite a challenge! Our squad was terrible in the database for the now never to be FM25.

Balls to PFR... I'd have been spunking money we didn't have. 

[Matthew Le God]

Just now, SNSUN said:

Balls to PFR... I'd have been spunking money we didn't have. 

The Nottingham Forest approach to staying up!

[Disco Stu]

8 minutes ago, Matthew Le God said:

When you then click on those tiles it then goes to 'cards' which give you a huge amount of info. The tiles give you an overview, the underlying cards are the detail. It is not a dumbing down.

The tile and card system is explained in this development update for the cancelled FM25...

https://share.google/WhnNT94mOVZii3IQw

 

 

Rebuilding the game from the ground up on a new engine leaves me wondering what they might leave out but those screenshots ease those doubts somewhat.

[trousers]

11 minutes ago, SNSUN said:

Balls to PFR... I'd have been spunking money we didn't have. 

 

10 minutes ago, Matthew Le God said:

The Nottingham Forest approach to staying up!

Which worked better than our approach last season of course...

Edited 14 August, 2025 by trousers

[BarryVenisonsHair]

Funnily enough I've started replaying FM 2005 and 26 isn't interesting me at all right now. 

[CB Fry]

10 minutes ago, Lee On Solent Saint said:

Just checked. Gary Lineker's superstar soccer 

Ah yes, as soon as I posted that I started to think that he had two games.

I think Hot Shot came a bit later, but still 8-bit. I had it on Amstrad but would have been a Speccy/Commodore game too. 

 

 

 

[Gloucester Saint]

4 hours ago, Matthew Le God said:

Who is going to give managing the women's team a go?

Imagine the half-time team talks from Lord Duckhunter

[Turkish]

Nothing will ever beat Subbuteo  

[Lee On Solent Saint]

31 minutes ago, CB Fry said:

Ah yes, as soon as I posted that I started to think that he had two games.

I think Hot Shot came a bit later, but still 8-bit. I had it on Amstrad but would have been a Speccy/Commodore game too. 

 

 

 

There was an FA Cup sim game that I remember playing as well. Also think Trevor Brooking had a titled game as well.

[CB Fry]

10 minutes ago, Lee On Solent Saint said:

There was an FA Cup sim game that I remember playing as well. Also think Trevor Brooking had a titled game as well.

Personal favourites for me was Emlyn Hughes International Soccer, which was the first game I remember where you could actually do different types of passing / shots, and Footballer Of The Year where you played as just one player not the whole team. Sometimes you'd score a hatrick but your team would lose 5-3 anyway.

Also there was an Italia 90 game which was brilliant as well.

Waiting 10 minutes for games to load, you kids don't know the half of it. Great days.

Edited 14 August, 2025 by CB Fry

[AlexLaw76]

4 minutes ago, CB Fry said:

Personal favourites for me was Emlyn Hughes International Soccer, which was the first game I remember where you could actually do different types of passing / shots, and Footballer Of The Year where you played as just one player not the whole team. Sometimes you'd score a hatrick but your team would lose 5-3 anyway.

Also there was an Italia 90 game which was brilliant as well.

Waiting 10 minutes for games to load, you kids don't know the half of it. Great days.

Kick Off 2 was the game before Sensible Soccer swept all aside

[Lee On Solent Saint]

11 minutes ago, CB Fry said:

Personal favourites for me was Emlyn Hughes International Soccer, which was the first game I remember where you could actually do different types of passing / shots, and Footballer Of The Year where you played as just one player not the whole team. Sometimes you'd score a hatrick but your team would lose 5-3 anyway.

Also there was an Italia 90 game which was brilliant as well.

Waiting 10 minutes for games to load, you kids don't know the half of it. Great days.

Had an International manager version of Football Director which was pretty cool too. What was the command? Load""? Something like that 

[CB Fry]

11 minutes ago, Lee On Solent Saint said:

Had an International manager version of Football Director which was pretty cool too. What was the command? Load""? Something like that 

Amstrad was Run", Spectrum probably similar.

Also in those days "pirating" was pretty easy as you just needed some blank cassettes and you were away

[CB Fry]

I wish I was 12.

[Matthew Le God]

Just now, CB Fry said:

I wish I was 12.

For any particular reason?

[Winnersaint]

14 hours ago, Turkish said:

Nothing will ever beat Subbuteo  

Until you kneel on one of the fuckers!

[Matthew Le God]

😇

 

[SNSUN]

30 minutes ago, Matthew Le God said:

😇

 

Will it have Jack Stephens screaming at opposition players and ball watching as the striker powers past him to score? 😆

[RedArmy]

 

57 minutes ago, Matthew Le God said:

😇

 

Is this why it was delayed? For some silly graphics? 
 

OG’s still play on the 2D overhead view with the flashing bar at the bottom when there’s a goal. 
 

Go and play fifa if you want graphics. 
 

Woke nonsense. 

[Holmes_and_Watson]

55 minutes ago, SNSUN said:

Will it have Jack Stephens screaming at opposition players and ball watching as the striker powers past him to score? 😆

It takes months to get the motion capture for hair pulling just right, hence the delay.

[Marsdinho]

Can you still cheat in FM26 and add other managers, then use the finances of those clubs to buy Saints players at inflate prices and boost our transfer funds? 

Edited 4 September, 2025 by Marsdinho

[JohnnyShearer2.0]

Championship Manager 97/98 is the goat.

However it only went for 30 seasons!

[Matthew Le God]

2 hours ago, RedArmy said:

 

Is this why it was delayed? For some silly graphics? 
 

OG’s still play on the 2D overhead view with the flashing bar at the bottom when there’s a goal. 
 

Go and play fifa if you want graphics. 
 

Woke nonsense. 

The vast majority of people use the 3D engine. Sports Interactive still keep the 2D engine for those that don't. Wouldn't true OGs not even have 2D and just have the text bar?

[Matthew Le God]

1 hour ago, Marsdinho said:

Can you still cheat in FM26 and add other managers, then use the finances of those clubs to buy Saints players at inflate prices and boost our transfer funds? 

Yes

But why?

[ZepSaint]

On 13/08/2025 at 17:20, Matthew Le God said:

Try the free demo and find out.

How do we get access to the demo ?

[Matthew Le God]

25 minutes ago, ZepSaint said:

How do we get access to the demo ?

FM free demos in the past have been available on Steam, Microsoft and Epic games stores around the time the game is released. 

Edited 4 September, 2025 by Matthew Le God

[Midfield_General]

On 14/08/2025 at 20:23, CB Fry said:

Personal favourites for me was Emlyn Hughes International Soccer, which was the first game I remember where you could actually do different types of passing / shots, and Footballer Of The Year where you played as just one player not the whole team. Sometimes you'd score a hatrick but your team would lose 5-3 anyway.

Also there was an Italia 90 game which was brilliant as well.

Waiting 10 minutes for games to load, you kids don't know the half of it. Great days.

For anyone on a Mac* but missing their old Spectrum, here you go...

Emlyn Hughes International Soccer: https://torinak.com/qaop/play/intsoccer

Match Day: https://torinak.com/qaop/play/matchday

Match Day 2: https://torinak.com/qaop/play/matchday2 

The original Football Manager: https://torinak.com/qaop/play/manager 

(* Not sure if they also work on a PC, haven't tried them) 

 

 

 

[jamesfp1]

7 hours ago, Matthew Le God said:

😇

 

This looks so bad 😂

I'll still buy it though. When is it out?