I’ve put together a challenge for anyone who fancies something different.
I’m sharing my Football Manager 2026 save and handing it over at a very specific moment. The in-game date is 1st July 2037, and FC St Helens have just had a completely ridiculous treble-winning season. They’ve won promotion to the Premier League for the first time in their history, while also winning the FA Cup and the Europa League.
So instead of building something from scratch, you’re stepping into a club that’s already punched way above its weight and is about to deal with the consequences of that.
You’ll be competing in six competitions in the 2037/38 season: Premier League Champions League FA Cup Carabao Cup Community Shield UEFA Super Cup
The squad is not great and it’s massively overperformed to get here, and the clubs finances are in a mess The whole idea is to see how people handle that step up when everything suddenly gets harder at once.
The challenge
You play one season only, starting from 1st July 2037 and finishing on 4th June 2038. Once you reach that date, save the game and submit it using the form below.
A couple of important rules: You must continue with the existing manager (don’t add a new one) No editor use No save scumming Play the season properly, not on holiday
Upload your saved game no later than 3rd May 2026.
Beyond that, it’s up to you. Transfers, tactics, squad changes, all fair game.
Scoring Everything you do across the season adds up into one final score.
Premier League You get: Your total points Your goal difference (can be negative) A position bonus (1st = 20, down to 20th = 1)
Champions League League phase: Points + goal difference + position bonus (1st = 20, down to 20th = 1, 21st–36th get 0)
Knockouts: Each knockout round won = +10 Runner-up = +25 Winner = +50 Playoff round gives no points
FA Cup +10 per round won +25 for winning the trophy
Carabao Cup +10 per round won +15 for winning the trophy
Super Cup +20 for winning the trophy
Community Shield +10 for winning the trophy
Everything gets added together and I’ll keep a leaderboard going.
This video explains everything in more detail with a couple of examples:
Deadline
The deadline for entries is:
Sunday 3rd May 2026
Just make sure your save is taken on 4th June 2038 in-game before submitting.
I’ll be running it myself as well and will share how I get on, but the main aim is just to see how differently people approach the same situation.
It’s one of those saves where it could go either way. You might stabilise and have a great season, or it might completely fall apart once the fixtures pile up and the level jumps.
Remember when Miles Jacobson said FM26 would be "slick" and "when the UI clicks it's awesome"? Or how "special" the 3D animations are?
Well, I went back and watched all his FM26 interviews and compared them to the current state of the game for your viewing pleasure.
I spent way too long clipping up every interview Miles Jacobson gave before FM26 launched. Remember all the hype about the new Unity engine, the slick UI, and how cancelling FM25 meant they wouldn't have to patch FM26 into a good state?
Well, I decided to take those pre-release quotes and put them right next to actual FM26 gameplay footage for comparison. It's only 12 minutes long but took a lot longer to make so would appreciate any engagement whatsoever.
Spoiler alert:
Spoiler
they don't exactly match up!
I’m not going to lie, I lolled out loud so many times when making this video, mainly out of pure disbelief at how different the promises were not only from the beta version that shipped but also in its current state (after however many "MUs". It might not actually be the 21st worst ever game like the Steam reviews show, but it's still pretty laughable comparing what we were sold vs what we got.
If you’ve experienced ridiculous match engine behaviour, the game crashing to your desktop because you dared to look at the Transfer Room screen, or a UI that feels anything but slick and awesome, this video is for you. Hopefully you get a good laugh out of it, too.
I’d love to hear your feedback on the video, or just your own horror stories with FM26 so far. Miles did a fantastic job of hyping it up to the moon, I'll give him that. Unfortunately, he sold us false hope.
I saw a post on social media about using a Sporting Director approach to handle youth recruitment, instead of manually hunting wonderkids yourself, so I went into the FM26 editor and created a shortlist of staff who actually have the tendencies to:
Sign lots of youth players
Spend money on youth signings
Sign U22 / U24 players
Buy young players to sell for profit
Basically the kind of DoF / Technical Director / HoYD / Assistant Manager profiles who naturally build a conveyor belt of talent.
The idea is simple:
Load the shortlist
Hire one of them
Give them responsibility to initiate U18 / U21 signings
Review the bids they submit and make the final decision yourself
Leave them to buy and sell youth players while you manage the senior squad
You still control the club. They just do the scouting and first offers for any potential wonderkids
Download the shortlist below.
Save it to \Documents\Sports Interactive\Football Manager 26\shortlists (although you may need to create the 'shortlists' folder) and then load it as a Staff Shortlist in game.
I tinkered with my set pieces a lot while testing various tactics and in the end decided on these being the best. Some results attached.
In FM26, go to your set pieces (skip through the introduction if it's a fresh save) then click Routine -> Load All Routines, and select Baz's Set Pieces for FM26.
Would appreciate feedback on their effectiveness compared to what you've previously used.
After lots of testing and tweaking and improving, I'm finally happy with this FM26 tactic. It's named baz got banned, after my YouTube channel, and is heavily inspired by the other top performers (credit to @Gerrard@ZaZ and @Exell for pushing the boundaries) on FM-Arena but with a complete new twist:
FIVE attacking midfielders, when in possession. Looks crazy, but works like a charm!
I tested it across multiple leagues:
Including Vitesse and their -12 point deduction:
And Fulham, expected to finish 10th in the first season:
Won the lot.
Player stats:
Fixtures, as required:
Maxed out on screenshots but hopefully that's plenty.
I'll be very surprised if this doesn't score at least 93%. It's the best tactic on FM26.
Watch this video for more info:
As well as more results, this shows all the instructions (console players take notes) and explanations for why it works.
Hope you enjoy playing with my tactic as much as I enjoyed making it.
Sorry I'm not sure what you mean? I used ARGUS 26 MT 3430 P107 AC in my video. It's an excellent tactic! Thanks for sharing it.
Mrpopostick123 said: Hey Baz, i recently used this tactic too and i watched your videos and you definitely proved everything, there´s a franchise discord server for FM26 that you can choose a team and the owner of the discord server and all the signings are controlled by the server and it use transfermarket to define the value of a player, i only signed pace/acceleration merchants for my attack in that server for my gremio team and i won most of the trophies for the tournaments i participated, Olankule Olusegun simply dominated everything and i sold him for 29M$, used that cash to buy even more pace merchants, now you completely proved that pace/acceleration is all that matters and even the server members are starting to only sign pace merchants lol
Here´s my position currently (also trying to sign the gk you showed on the video): Expand
Hahah I love this. Congrats on getting in there first. Hope you can pick up Moise Ramirez!
ZaZ said: There isn't much to it. Just remove all training sessions after every match, possibly using some premade training schedule, then set players to "no pitch or gym training) if they are low on energy (which would be true for all players participating in matches).
I will add my training schedule here if you are interested, but I didn't test to know how it compares to other schedules (keep in mind my schedule assumes double intensity when full condition). Expand
Not gonna lie. Figuring out how to import and set this on FM26 was harder than solving a Rubik's cube.
Thanks for sharing, I got there in the end. Looking forward to seeing the benefits.
I’ve put together a challenge for anyone who fancies something different.
I’m sharing my Football Manager 2026 save and handing it over at a very specific moment. The in-game date is 1st July 2037, and FC St Helens have just had a completely ridiculous treble-winning season. They’ve won promotion to the Premier League for the first time in their history, while also winning the FA Cup and the Europa League.
So instead of building something from scratch, you’re stepping into a club that’s already punched way above its weight and is about to deal with the consequences of that.
You’ll be competing in six competitions in the 2037/38 season:
Premier League
Champions League
FA Cup
Carabao Cup
Community Shield
UEFA Super Cup
The squad is not great and it’s massively overperformed to get here, and the clubs finances are in a mess The whole idea is to see how people handle that step up when everything suddenly gets harder at once.
The challenge
You play one season only, starting from 1st July 2037 and finishing on 4th June 2038. Once you reach that date, save the game and submit it using the form below.
Download the save:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UZlBHKpEae416lx8apbkug-pmZH7RMKd/view?usp=sharing
Submit your saved game by 3rd May 2026:
https://forms.gle/nG5a4hVPHM8gr2xs5
A couple of important rules:
You must continue with the existing manager (don’t add a new one)
No editor use
No save scumming
Play the season properly, not on holiday
Upload your saved game no later than 3rd May 2026.
Beyond that, it’s up to you. Transfers, tactics, squad changes, all fair game.
Scoring
Everything you do across the season adds up into one final score.
Premier League
You get:
Your total points
Your goal difference (can be negative)
A position bonus (1st = 20, down to 20th = 1)
Champions League
League phase:
Points + goal difference + position bonus (1st = 20, down to 20th = 1, 21st–36th get 0)
Knockouts:
Each knockout round won = +10
Runner-up = +25
Winner = +50
Playoff round gives no points
FA Cup
+10 per round won
+25 for winning the trophy
Carabao Cup
+10 per round won
+15 for winning the trophy
Super Cup
+20 for winning the trophy
Community Shield
+10 for winning the trophy
Everything gets added together and I’ll keep a leaderboard going.
This video explains everything in more detail with a couple of examples:
Deadline
The deadline for entries is:
Sunday 3rd May 2026
Just make sure your save is taken on 4th June 2038 in-game before submitting.
I’ll be running it myself as well and will share how I get on, but the main aim is just to see how differently people approach the same situation.
It’s one of those saves where it could go either way. You might stabilise and have a great season, or it might completely fall apart once the fixtures pile up and the level jumps.
Interested to see what people do with it
Well, I went back and watched all his FM26 interviews and compared them to the current state of the game for your viewing pleasure.
I spent way too long clipping up every interview Miles Jacobson gave before FM26 launched. Remember all the hype about the new Unity engine, the slick UI, and how cancelling FM25 meant they wouldn't have to patch FM26 into a good state?
Well, I decided to take those pre-release quotes and put them right next to actual FM26 gameplay footage for comparison. It's only 12 minutes long but took a lot longer to make so would appreciate any engagement whatsoever.
Spoiler alert: Spoiler they don't exactly match up!
I’m not going to lie, I lolled out loud so many times when making this video, mainly out of pure disbelief at how different the promises were not only from the beta version that shipped but also in its current state (after however many "MUs"
If you’ve experienced ridiculous match engine behaviour, the game crashing to your desktop because you dared to look at the Transfer Room screen, or a UI that feels anything but slick and awesome, this video is for you. Hopefully you get a good laugh out of it, too.
I’d love to hear your feedback on the video, or just your own horror stories with FM26 so far. Miles did a fantastic job of hyping it up to the moon, I'll give him that. Unfortunately, he sold us false hope.
Sign lots of youth players
Spend money on youth signings
Sign U22 / U24 players
Buy young players to sell for profit
Basically the kind of DoF / Technical Director / HoYD / Assistant Manager profiles who naturally build a conveyor belt of talent.
The idea is simple:
Load the shortlist
Hire one of them
Give them responsibility to initiate U18 / U21 signings
Review the bids they submit and make the final decision yourself
Leave them to buy and sell youth players while you manage the senior squad
You still control the club. They just do the scouting and first offers for any potential wonderkids
Download the shortlist below.
Save it to \Documents\Sports Interactive\Football Manager 26\shortlists (although you may need to create the 'shortlists' folder) and then load it as a Staff Shortlist in game.
Video guide here:
How's it going?
I'd love for you to test it yourself.
Screenshots included for those who play on console.
In FM26, go to your set pieces (skip through the introduction if it's a fresh save) then click Routine -> Load All Routines, and select Baz's Set Pieces for FM26.
Would appreciate feedback on their effectiveness compared to what you've previously used.
Also available on Steam Workshop: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3656907821
Would love any feedback!
FIVE attacking midfielders, when in possession. Looks crazy, but works like a charm!
I tested it across multiple leagues:
Including Vitesse and their -12 point deduction:
And Fulham, expected to finish 10th in the first season:
Won the lot.
Player stats:
Fixtures, as required:
Maxed out on screenshots but hopefully that's plenty.
I'll be very surprised if this doesn't score at least 93%. It's the best tactic on FM26.
Watch this video for more info:
As well as more results, this shows all the instructions (console players take notes) and explanations for why it works.
Hope you enjoy playing with my tactic as much as I enjoyed making it.
Sorry I'm not sure what you mean? I used ARGUS 26 MT 3430 P107 AC in my video. It's an excellent tactic! Thanks for sharing it.
Mrpopostick123 said: Hey Baz, i recently used this tactic too and i watched your videos and you definitely proved everything, there´s a franchise discord server for FM26 that you can choose a team and the owner of the discord server and all the signings are controlled by the server and it use transfermarket to define the value of a player, i only signed pace/acceleration merchants for my attack in that server for my gremio team and i won most of the trophies for the tournaments i participated, Olankule Olusegun simply dominated everything and i sold him for 29M$, used that cash to buy even more pace merchants, now you completely proved that pace/acceleration is all that matters and even the server members are starting to only sign pace merchants lol
Here´s my position currently (also trying to sign the gk you showed on the video):
Hahah I love this. Congrats on getting in there first. Hope you can pick up Moise Ramirez!
Part one:
Part two:
I will add my training schedule here if you are interested, but I didn't test to know how it compares to other schedules (keep in mind my schedule assumes double intensity when full condition).
Not gonna lie. Figuring out how to import and set this on FM26 was harder than solving a Rubik's cube.
Thanks for sharing, I got there in the end. Looking forward to seeing the benefits.