Off-Field – Football Manager 2021 Challenges 2
“I wouldn’t say I was the best manager in the business. But I was in the top one.” – Brian Clough (Me in my bathroom mirror).
Back at the start of the blog a year ago, we created a post highlighting some challenge saves to take on in Football Manager 2020, and due to it’s popularity, back in October I created an updated version for the release of Football Manager 2021. Again, as these have been possibly my most popular posts, I decided to create another list of 10 challenges to take on as we reach the (hopeful) end of lockdown for good. Some of these could be easily completed in a weekend, while some may take several weeks or even months to get close to completing, so it will hopefully have something for every type of player. Additionally, I have named a lot of these challenges myself, and have tried to be original with my suggestions, however of course people may have spoken about these before or suggested these elsewhere. Either way, hopefully these suggestions can spark a little bit of interest or get you over that brick wall decision of where to start and what to do in the game. If you do take on any of these challenges, I’d love to hear from you (@NextGoalWinBlog on Twitter).
So good luck in the brutal world of football management, and don’t forget to have bathroom mirror press interviews and wear your best suit for the cup final.
Sunderland/Portsmouth
While I’m not sure these two sides would quite be categorised as ‘sleeping giants’ they are certainly 2 sides with similar tales of free-falling through England’s footballing pyramid. In the past 20 years, these sides have fallen from being in the top-tier of football in fairly comfortable terms down to struggling in League 1 currently. With their size and stature in the game, many would agree that they should be higher up in football, or at least in the top-half of the Championship. However, with financial and on-field mismanagement, they seem unable to escape the lower leagues, missing play-off and promotion opportunities in recent seasons.
As a result, you will be stepping in to see if you can achieve what many, many managers before you have failed to do, and recover these big English sides to the top-flight and possibly even create a new legacy within European football for these clubs. While it is certainly not an easy challenge, it’s one that may appeal to a more casual player or someone looking for a weekend shorter challenge to take on. As the clubs have decent foundations, they should be expected to escape League 1 in the first season or 2 as a minimum, meaning the challenge really builds from there. The first season should be fairly simple and straight forward, and the difficulty will build as you progress through the leagues.
This is one that I attempted with varied success back in Football Manager 2020, as I took Sunderland to the Championship, and after a mid-table finish in the second season, my squad overhaul of incomings and outgoings left me with a disjointed side that couldn’t gel and I was quite quickly shown the door in the 3rd season.
Let me know if you take this one on and manage any better than I did.
UK Challenge
The UK is made up of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland (incase you weren’t aware), and in the most part the regular football fan will only ever sit down and watch the English leagues and possibly Celtic and Rangers occasionally. However, there are 4 countries, each with their own footballing setup to dive into, and in the UK challenge for Football Manager, you must travel to each country, and win the domestic title in each area.
This is similar to other travelling challenges, however there is such a gulf in quality between the divisions, that you could try and work your way up to finally finish off in the Premier League, or may decide to take an easier route by starting in the Premier League and moving on from there. Whichever route you decide to take, you must win the big one in all 4 leagues; the Premier League (England), Scottish Professional Football League (Scotland), Cymru Premier (Wales) and NIFL Premiership (Northern Ireland).
Depending on the route you take, this may be quite a lengthy challenge, particularly if you wait for the right job in each country to open up, however if you stick with it and persevere, you will be well-versed in football in the UK, and might just find yourself forming an affection with a new league.
Welcome To Miami
“Bienvenidos a Miami” as I believe the song goes.
Anyways, back to the Football Manager, this challenge is another that I thought about, despite not knowing too much about the MLS itself, however I am well-aware that founder David Beckham has created and marketed a new football club in America which could possibly dominate the American league for years to come. Particularly, with Phil Neville joining their ranks, and signing huge names such as Higuaín, Blaise Matuidi and even Kieran Gibbs and Ryan Shawcross in recent months. It’s a great project which looks determined to succeed, however with their early years trying to build up the squad and foundations, you could be the person to lead them to their first glory in Football Manager 21.
I don’t think this one will take too much time to complete, as I assume they will be financially secure enough to allow for some big signings, and the MLS setup means it shouldn’t take too long to conquer the league, however it’s certainly an interesting challenge to take on, as you are entering in the very early stages of a new major footballing side, so you could be their legendary manager to build and develop a legacy.
Let’s Play Darts
This next challenge almost feels like something from a shitty YouTube vlogger’s channel, but the premise is super simple, you throw a dart at a map, and begin a management journey wherever it lands.
With the games growing league database, you can pretty much manage in any major nation, meaning if you launch a dart into a map, or even get someone to suggest a random country or place, you lose control of who you are forced to manage. It adds a random element to your decision making as you may be fortunate in landing in Munich or Barcelona, or maybe more unfortunate and land in Tranmere. Either way, it prevents the ‘Netflix-esque’ searching and scrolling trying to find where to manage.
It might be that you are more generous to yourself and stick to which country the dart lands, however you could be as specific as to pinpoint the exact city/town and go from there. But you must not change, you must go to that exact spot, or the nearest club if you land in the middle of the desert, and take control and build from there.
Now, there’s not much challenge from this point, however you could possibly continue this randomised decision making throughout the game, and pick a random formation, random team choice and random transfer decisions by either tossing a coin or rolling a dice. This randomised decision making leaves your success (or failure) down to fate, so you can’t get blamed should you get sacked in a week.
Summer Holidays
With summer just around the corner, and summer holidays looking less and less likely thanks to the wonderful virus and the speed of our government making any decisions, therefore we are left dreaming of these holiday destinations. As a result, you may decide to take your summer vacation virtually this year, as you turn your dream summer getaway, into your new Football Manager challenge.
Almost a year ago (wow time flies) in one of our first blog posts, we wrote about some of the great holiday destinations, and the football clubs in that area. I’m not just trying to plug that post, honestly, and I think that starting a save off at UD Ibiza or wherever else you may have been craving to have a summer getaway at this year. It’s more of a personal challenge, however it may just spark enough interest in the side that you make an actual visit on your next travel adventure to see how your management compares to the real thing.
Nottingham Forest
In a similar vein to the Sunderland/Portsmouth challenges, this one might not quite be a ‘sleeping giants’ style challenge, however Nottingham Forest must still be recognised as one of England’s most decorated European sides after their back-to-back European Cup trophies in the late 70s under the great Brian Clough.
Because of this great history, this challenge of recapturing European success will be a tough one, particularly as this current Forest side are sitting fairly mid-table in the Championship standings. As a result, first you will need domestic success before taking on the top sides in Europe. It’s another one of the challenges that will take up some time, but it by no means impossible. Perhaps looking at a 6-10 season challenge, your successes and management could speed things up or continue the challenge for longer. The challenge is complete when you have won the Champions League with Forest, and possibly you could set a further target of domestic trophies. If you can eclipse the great legacy of Clough and Taylor, you’ve done a top job.
As Clough himself once said… “Rome wasn’t built in a day, but I wasn’t on that particular job.”
Fan Revolution
There has been a few occasions where, after feeling mistreated by their teams’ owners, some fans have taken matters into their own hands. Most notably, AFC Wimbledon after the issues regarding their move to Milton Keynes, and also with Manchester United fans (or should I say former fans) who were tired of the ownership at the club and as a result formed FC United of Manchester. It’s this side that I am putting forth as the Football Manager challenge to try out and see if you can lead the fan revolution to the top.
I have avoided AFC Wimbledon, as quite frankly I think they’re more than a match for MK Dons in the current state of things, however the balance between Manchester United and FC United of Manchester is so skewed, given the priors’ history, success and financial prowess, that reaching their level and even outdoing them in the Premier League or Europe would be a major, mind-blowing situation. Therefore, to complete this challenge, you must take FC United of Manchester (Or any similar club you could find within the game) and finish a season ahead of the club they are designed to go against, thus completing the fan revolution.
This one is essentially like taking a side from non-league to Champions League, and that’s why I think it’s such a good challenge, to not only climb the ranks of football, but also get one over a major side in this way. Obviously, it might not change things in real life, however it will be a real achievement for a club that were born through frustration with the legendary Manchester side to get ahead of them, even just in Football Manager.
Must Destroy
In a very alternative approach than our previous challenge, this one is a more unusual challenge to take on. It’s also one that I think only those with a lot of time on their hands will be able to undertake. In it, you take charge of your rival club, or a club you have a dislike towards, and must destroy the club from within, without getting sacked.
Even as I’m thinking of this, I already think it goes against everything good about football, however I think it would be a real challenge to see if you can bring down a major club without being sacked. It won’t be easy, as you must manage how you will drop down the table, or mismanage the finances or dressing room, without going too hard as to get immediately sacked as a result.
With this challenge, the game is up when you are sacked, and your success comes from how far you have made the team fall. It may be that you make Manchester City financially unstable, get one of the Premier League top sides dropping into the relegation zone, or completely ruin the staffing of a side by sacking anyone with a shred of talent. It’s not the most entertaining or difficult, and it’s probably one for those with an evil, sadistic mind-set, but it’s a unique challenge that I know for sure I’ve never seen attempted before.
Database’s Galore
If you are reading this, then chances are that you are aware of the wider Football Manager community, and the incredible modifications and additional content that fans have created over the years. Looking through some of these, it’s becoming more and more incredible to see the work that people are producing to alter the game and turn it into something completely different. Therefore, it may be that your challenge to try is to pick up one of these game databases and take of Football Manager 21 in a ‘different’ way.
Some of my personal favourites that I have seen or heard about, include; retro databases spanning from the 70s through to the early 10s, allowing you to bring back some great sides from years gone by. Additionally, I’ve just downloaded an Ashwood City team (from the incredible Offensive podcast) which I am very excited to try out, and there are so many more available to try out in a save. Downloading most of them is completely free and really simple to do, with most downloads coming with an instruction document.
It’s perhaps not a traditional challenge, but allows you to have a more unique save and experience, and even jump into an alternate reality whilst still playing Football Manager. Simply stick football manager 21 databases into google and you’ll no doubt find something to intrigue you in no time.
Create A Legacy
If you are wanting a completely unique experience, and possess the creativity to start from the very beginning to create a footballing legacy, this last challenge is the one for you. With ‘create a legacy’, you will be creating your own club from scratch and competing all the way through the divisions until you make it to the very top. Arguably more than any other challenge, this one will require the most time, effort and dedication to even come close to completing, as your club will be built from the ground up by yourself.
Obviously, the game possesses an in-built feature for creating your own club, which shows that many are already attempting this challenge, and quite frankly, I must admit that I have never utilised this feature to give any honest feedback relating to its efficiency or enjoyment factor. However, I have seen some examples where people have truly worked wonders in this game-mode to see it through to completion.
At a minimum, I would be expecting this challenge to last for 10 seasons, so certainly not one for the feint-hearted, however if you are wanting a major task with the most satisfying of rewards, then this is the challenge for you. Now, you may want to increase the time spent on this and possibly even the difficulty, if you want to make it your club, as you could modify the team to be exactly what you want, however this will require much creativity and possibly more technical knowledge. Either way, creating your own club is up there as one of the games biggest challenges, and possibly could rival the dreaded pentagon or San Marino challenges in terms of difficulty. So good luck, and let me know if you ever take this on, I’d love to see what you could come up with.
