With the disappointment of no FM25 starting to subside, many people are now turning their attention to the next edition of the game, which is FM26. Reports suggest the new edition of the game is likely to be released from the end of October to the start of November.
As we all know, the game is undergoing a massive overhaul. This is why we didn’t get FM25.
Sports Interactive regret to inform that, following extensive internal discussion and careful consideration with SEGA, we have made the difficult decision to cancel Football Manager 25. pic.twitter.com/tLRbq8305K
— Football Manager (@FootballManager) February 7, 2025
Hopefully, those changes are for the better. Here are some changes we would like to have for FM26:
Realistic transfer fees involving the AI clubs
This is one of my major bugbears with FM. If you want to sign a star player from an AI team, you have to give them a massive fee and your first-born child to sign the player. That’s before you even get to negotiating terms with the player.
However, this doesn’t work both ways, as when they attempt to sign your players, they want to pay peanuts for your star players. Unfortunately, they lowball you with these offers, and sometimes it leads to your player being unhappy because they want the move and a big fat payday.
Then your player is next to useless because you have an unhappy player, which then often leads to squad unrest. That leaves you with two choices: To keep the player and harm the harmony of the squad, or sell the player, but likely at a much lower fee than he is worth.
Unfortunately, as far as I can remember, this has happened in FM. It often drives me insane, usually when I am trying to sell my players! Hopefully, this will be adjusted slightly in FM26.
Better in-game intelligence
I know that people have played with the match engine and have produced mods in an attempt to change the match engine. I haven’t used these mods, but they are getting mixed reviews from those who have. We appreciate the efforts of those moders who have attempted to make the game better.
However, we shouldn’t have to rely on a small, hardy group of volunteers when it comes to a vital aspect of the game. It should be SI that improves the match engine.
All I want is for the match engine to be more realistic and for the players’ attributes to be better represented on the pitch. At times, even my best players with top stats make ridiculous decisions.
People will say, well, even top players do that in real life. However, do they make the same mistake over and over again? Does a top midfielder consistently give the ball away to his opponent in the centre of the pitch? The answer is no.
In my current save, my team dominates every competition. All my players are 4+ stars, and yet, still, my 5-star central midfielder with 18 intelligence consistently gives the ball away.
Fortunately, one of my other players usually wins it back, which has been a big factor in our domination. I just want players’ behaviour in general to be truer to life. I don’t want them running around looking like robots
Better press conferences and social media interaction
Whenever there is a new edition of FM, I go to the press conferences for the first few weeks. However, I then get bored, as it tends to be the same questions and the same answers over and over.
Then I just delegate all the press conferences to my assistant manager. It can sometimes get you in trouble if your assistant says the wrong thing. However, it is far better than doing the same thing over and over again.
A slightly bigger range of questions and answers would surely make the press conferences more interesting for you as a player.
It would be good if you could interact with social media posts, which are once again the same over and over again. Surely in the age of AI, there is a way of coming up with original questions, which then can produce original answers.
Hopefully, SI can come up with something fresh in FM26, even if it is just a wider range of questions and answers. This would then hopefully have a different effect on players’ moods, like it does now, but in a slightly different way.
