“Football is played with the head, your feet are just the tools.” – Andrea Pirlo (Me in my bathroom mirror).

We are continuing our Football Manager challenges for you to take on, and this time looking at the best ‘fan created challenges’. These are the more developed and more intricate challenges to take on, where you will be moving around the leagues, countries and continents to get to the top. These will vary in length from just a season, to 10-15+ years, therefore there will hopefully be something for everyone.

We will be putting together several of these lists through the year, so as always, let us know if you have any challenges you’re trying out this year (@NextGoalWinBlog on Twitter) or let us know if you’ve taken on any of our suggestions, we’d love to hear from you.

So, let’s get going with these challenges, grab your suit and tie, iron your shirt, and do a bit of media training for those bathroom mirror interviews on cup final day, and most importantly, good luck out there!

Own The City

Up first, we have a challenge of variable length, depending on starting location, and the main aim is to take control of a city that has been dominated by one of the Worlds’ elite sides for generations. Think, FC United of Manchester taking on City and United, Paris FC destroying PSG, Espanyol overtaking Barcelona or even Torino FC becoming Turin’s no.1. This is a real ‘pride of the city’ style challenge, wherein your end goal is to finish above your local rivals and claim bragging rights for the loyal citizens who follow the ‘smaller club’ through thick and thin.

As mentioned previously, this challenge can vary hugely dependant on where you set up. To take FC United of Manchester to the top-level would take a long time, whereas you could easily get through the Torino version in a season or 2 (with a bit of luck and skill). So this gives great flexibility for whoever is willing to take it on, and almost comes with difficulty levels within.

This challenge will be ‘complete’ when either you finish above your rivals for the first time, you take the league title, win more trophies, get a bigger stadium, have a higher club value, or a combination of all. It’s really up to you which way you approach this but the aim is simple, knock the big boys off their perch and claim the city as your own.

Director Of Football

Our next challenge is something we actually see occur in modern football even if we don’t always necessarily think of it. A director of football is usually on hand to deal with major decisions such as hiring and firing, having a say on transfers and keeping the club on a trajectory by both supporting and challenging coaching and playing staff consecutively. This challenge means you will put complete faith in your DoF by letting them take control of all decisions.

Football Manager gives you the option to hand over responsibility of making transfers, hiring coaching staff, renewing contracts and scouting available talent. By selecting to hand over all this responsibility, you must work with what they give you, and make the best of it. No matter who they bring in and who they let go, that’s what you have to deal with. Many real-world managers have this occurring in their actual job, so see if you can deal with this any better.

It’s up to you where you begin this journey, but bear in mind that the biggest clubs will have lots of clubs sniffing round your talented players and may quickly have to adjust to losing star talents. It’s up to you who you appoint as the DoF (providing the club don’t already have a man in place), and you’re away. The end point doesn’t really exist and is more of an attempt to last it out in this challenge. When none of the decisions are yours, but you’re held accountable, see if you can keep your job when your hands are literally tied.

You Can’t Win Anything With Kids…

The infamous quote is what brings our next challenge. If you think of yourself as a bit of a Sir Alex Ferguson in the making, this challenge will let you test your mettle as you are only allowed to bring in youth players, NO SIGNINGS!

Of course you’ll be allowed to sell, but that money can’t be used to bring in any players, and all new signings must come through the youth setup only. This challenge is almost identical to the Athletic Bilbao model where they only bring in home-grown players, and it’s the same idea here. You will want to think carefully of where you start, as having strong foundations in youth development is crucial, hiring the right coaches to enable this is priority, and having the setup in place from the outset is essential.

It’s another challenge with no real ‘end goal’, but you could easily set some for yourself. Whether it’s to win the top division in the country, build the best team in Europe/continent, bring through a Balon d’Or winner or develop a record transfer player, the choices are yours and will dictate the duration of the challenge, but maybe expect to last a few years to bring through the youngsters. And you might just have your own class of 92 on your hands.

Spin The Wheel

Our 4th challenge is definitely a bit ‘gimmicky’, but who doesn’t love a bit of that. It’s pretty much everything that’s said in the heading, you will spin a wheel (literal of metaphorical) for all decisions. Want to know where to start? Spin the wheel! Want to know where to scout? Spin the wheel! Which formation? Spin the wheel! Okay you get the idea.

So, you won’t know this challenge’s starting point or measure of success until you begin, and it might be worth having another screen open to create these spinning wheels, but with a bit of time and effort, you could put your hands into the hands of fate, as every decision you make must go to the wheel. How much you get into this is up to you, even down to team-talk approach you could spin the wheel. It’s very much time and effort permitting, but would be great fun if you’re wanting to take on a save with a friend.

*Wheel could be substituted for a coin-flip for speed.*

Phone A Friend

Okay our last one we may have ripped off a famous gimmick from a TV gameshow, and I’ll say now that the phone element is optional, but the idea follows that in a similar way to the previous challenge, this one you are again relying on fate almost, as you must hand over all decisions to a friend/family member/colleague. I wouldn’t advise asking them every detail (especially if you want that person to be around at the end of the challenge), but you could give them an option for picking your start club, make the decisions who to sign/sell, and anytime you’re left with a conundrum, it’s down to them.

Make sure the person you choose to ask is a quality assistant and you may have found your Sammy Lee to your Big Sam. If you’re lucky they may be a connoisseur of football management simulation games, and if not, then unlucky. If you’re feeling optimistic about the interactions, you could even let social media decide, they often make good suggestions right (or maybe not). Whoever you choose, best of luck, and don’t forget to let us know how you get on over on Twitter (@NextGoalWinBlog), we will even be your assistant manager if you so require.