10 New Football Manager Summer Saves

The summer brings longer days and warmer weather. While there’s some international football and a number of leagues played during the summer months, there’s a wait until we see the world’s biggest clubs back in competitive action. Between now and then is the prime time for a new Football Manager adventure, whether you’re replicating the achievements of real-life teams or making up for campaigns that went a bit awry. Here are 10 clubs you should consider managing next in FM22. 

FC Bayern München

Okay, we’ll start off with a relatively straightforward one…

FC Bayern recently wrapped up their tenth consecutive domestic title, seeing off the spirited challenges of Borussia Dortmund, Bayer 04 Leverkusen and RB Leipzig. 

Domestic dominance is all well and good but it’s on the continent where the Bavarian giants are ultimately judged. While they won Europe’s top prize in 2020, back-to-back quarter-final eliminations in the last two years have fallen below expectations. 

Can you go a step further and deliver success on multiple fronts in the 2021/22 season? If you’re looking to add a new dimension to the challenge, focus your squad-building efforts on promoting talents from the club’s youth system rather than splashing the cash on overseas additions.

RC Lens

The fact RC Lens have recorded successive seventh-place finishes following promotion back to Ligue 1 Uber Eats doesn’t get enough praise. 

The North France outfit have played some good football and delivered the sort of bargain-driven recruitment, as illustrated by the likes of French international Jonathan Clauss and Poland’s Przemysław Frankowski, that would impress even most the ardent Football Manager player.

Have you got what it takes to match that seventh-place finish before using your transfer skills to add the depth needed to push Les Sang et Or even further up the table?

Salernitana

The 2021-22 season will live long in the memory of Salernitana supporters, who have experienced every emotion over the last nine months. 

From having the threat of potential expulsion from the league hanging over them before Christmas to a dramatic Davide Nicola-inspired turnaround that saw them escape the drop on the last day after spending 33 weeks of the season in the relegation zone, it’s been some ride.

While the Salerno-based outfit already had Franck Ribéry on their books as captain, veteran Argentine internationals Federico Fazio and Diego Perotti were just two of almost a dozen winter transfer window additions. Having them at your disposal from the start of your time with Salernitana should make them a lot of fun to manage in FM22. Anyway, who doesn’t enjoy a summer jaunt to the Italian coast?

Hertha Berlin

Hertha Berlin came back from the brink last month, turning round a first-leg deficit to beat Hamburger SV in the relegation play-off and keep their Bundesliga status intact. 

Despite being well-backed financially, Hertha’s big player investment is yet to really pay off. Indeed, while they’ve been struggling towards the bottom of the table, they’ve had to watch fierce local rivals Union Berlin come up from Bundesliga 2 and immediately cement themselves in European qualification places.

In FM22, you can head to the Olympiastadion in Berlin and start the season afresh. If you can navigate your way to mid-table in the 2021/22 season, it’ll then be time to start winning back those city bragging rights and dreaming of big nights under the lights. 

Toronto FC

Last season was, in all honesty, not good for Canada’s only former MLS champions. Toronto finished 13th out of 14 teams in the Eastern Conference and 26th out of 27 teams overall. 

Those results mean, as we’re sure long-term FM players can work out, a rebuild. The Reds have opted for staffing changes, fresh faces up and down the lineup and two new designated players, namely Mexican defender Carlos Salcedo and Italian attacker Lorenzo Insigne. 

Insigne isn’t set to move to Toronto until early July. With the season starting in February, it’ll be up to you to work out a system that keeps you in contention before in the early months and then allows you to get the most from him when he arrives*. If he makes half the impact the last big-name Italian to don the red and black did, you’ll be well set to rack up the silverware. 

RC Strasbourg

RC Strasbourg were the surprise package in Ligue 1 Uber Eats this season, a run of just two defeats in their final 16 games seeing them achieve a sixth-place finish. 

Key to their success was their dynamic frontline of Ludovic Ajorque, Habib Diallo and Kevin Gameiro, who collectively contributed 34 of the club’s 60 league goals, and the midfield creativity of Adrien Thomasson.

Will you be able to harness that firepower in the same way in your first season in charge? If you can, you can turn your attentions to challenging the French elite and beginning to build a trophy-winning dynasty in the Alsace region?

Suwon FC

One of the biggest storylines in Korean football this season has been the return of Lee Seung-Woo.

As a teenager, he was one of the world’s most hyped prospects; a real FM wonderkid. His time spent in Europe never really worked out but now, aged 24, he’s headed back to South Korea and joined his hometown club. 

While Lee has been playing well, Suwon as a team have struggled and sit 11th in the K-League table at the time of writing. Your task is simple – work out how you can build a successful team around him that delivers results on the pitch and allows him to reach those heights at home and abroad that everyone thought he would. 

Heart of Midlothian

Back where they belong in the Scottish Premiership, Hearts enjoyed a stunning season, reaching a domestic cup final and securing European football by finishing third in the league. 

Looking at their squad, it’s easy to see why they had so much success. Craig Gordon is a great goalkeeper and leader, while Barrie McKay and Josh Ginnelly are the sort of creative talents you need to feed a clinical striker like Liam Boyce. 

Matching that run to third place will be a tough task in your first season but we have faith. Challenging the duopoly of the Old Firm will take time but if you’ve got the staying power and some savvy recruitment knowhow, you’ll be bringing open top buses and title parades to Edinburgh in the not too distant future. 

Lech Poznan

Making your home stadium a fortress and a ‘difficult place to go’ are two of football’s great cliches but this season they proved true for Lech Poznan, who conceded just seven times in 17 games at Stadion Poznań as they won their first Ekstraklasa crown in seven years. 

It wasn’t just defensively that Lech excelled though, as Portuguese midfielder Joao Amaral and captain Mikael Ishak scored 32 goals between them in career-best campaigns. 

With that in mind, the quality is there for you to enjoy similar instant success in FM22. Will you be able to follow title glory with the sort of recruitment that will allow you to make a real splash in the continental competitions?

Burton Albion

We’ve got a lot of time for Burton Albion, one of the EFL’s most community-minded and well-run clubs.

Although they don’t have the same financial resources of some of Sky Bet League One’s bigger clubs, they’ve got a decent squad and their first-choice backline of Cameron Borthwick-Jackson, Michael Mancienne, Deji Oshilaja and John Brayford is a good one. If you can keep them fit and start the campaign strongly, it’s not beyond the realms of possibility that you can better the club’s real-life performance in 2021/22 season and challenge for a play-off place. 

After the first season, there are a few long-term goals you should be targeting with The Brewers. They’ve never won a senior cup before (FA Cup, Papa John’s Trophy, Carabao Cup) and their highest previous finish in English football was 20th in the Sky Bet Championship. Achieve both and it’ll be happy hour all the time for you at the Pirelli Stadium.

Hopefully those 10 teams have given you some summer FM food for through and an FM22 game adventure to remember. 

*In order to begin a career with an MLS side in 2022 rather than 2021, you’ll also need to load a nation with a 2022 start date (e.g. Sweden) and use that as the in-game start date. This is only applicable in the PC/Mac version of the game.