1. Everton (Premier League)
After such a dismal 2015/16 for the Toffees, the only way is up. Expectations are perfectly achievable with your current squad: to finish in the Europa League and reach the FA Cup quarter-finals. But with a £45m transfer kitty and £106k per week left to play with for wages, you can add to an already-talented bunch and perhaps even surpass what the board are expecting of you.
2. Leicester (Premier League)
What on earth is a good season for Leicester? Really, it’s all about how far you can take them in the Champions League on this save – but unfortunately for you, it’s unlikely you’ll be pulling out Porto, Club Brugge and Copenhagen like the Foxes’ kind real-life draw. The board aren’t expecting you to progress and only want a top-half finish in the league, so with the £9.5m you’ll get to spend on new faces (plus £109k free on the wage bill) you can’t really go too far wrong.
3. Burton (Championship)
Like a challenge good? There’s a reason Burton’s board only care about you staying up: because you’ll have your work cut out with the Championship’s lowest wage budget by far (that £67k per week is 17 times less than Newcastle, for example, and about the same as Portsmouth’s in League Two). You’ll need to use the loan market well.
4. and 5. Leeds, Nottingham Forest (Championship)
Many managers have tried and failed to restore both of these former giants to old glories, mainly thanks to madcap ownership and a distinct lack of patience. So now it’s your turn to try. You’ll get better resources with Forest – a £500k transfer budget and £339k-per-week wage budget that you start £14k under; at Leeds, there’s £100k to spend on players but no wriggle room for incomings unless you shift folk off the payroll. Your first job is convincing the likes of Charlie Taylor, Souleymane Doukara and Alex Mowatt to extend their current deals – or risk losing them for peanuts.
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6. Charlton (League One)
Oh dear. Oh dear, oh dear. Zero transfer budget. £32k per week over budget on wages. Your highest earner, Jorge Teixeira, is sidelined for two to three months, so good luck getting rid of him. You do at least have 18-year-old hotshot Ademola Lookman, but it’s only a matter of time before you’re forced to sell. On the plus side, the squad is a little bloated so there’s scope to offload players where possible; meanwhile, you’ll have a strong academy and good coaches with which to blood the next generation. Good luck, though – you’ll need it.
7. Sheffield United (League One)
Perennial play-off failures Sheffield United go into their sixth consecutive League One campaign having finished in the top six for three of the previous five campaigns. The 2015/16 season was their worst yet, though (11th), so your task is to arrest that decline. But there’s money to spend (£300k) and enough left for wages (£10k) – probably enough for two very good arrivals to boost your ranks.
8. Blackpool (League Two)
Successive relegations have put Blackpool back in the fourth tier for the first time since 2001 – but getting them back up at the first time of asking looks well within reach. Thankfully you won’t have to work with Karl Oyston in real life, there’s £5.5k per week remaining for wages (in context: your highest earner is on £1.8k p/w) and £50k in the pot for transfers. Your squad is already better than most at this level: the likes of Tom Aldred, Danny Pugh, Mark Yeates are experienced, and new striker Jamille Matt had a fine loan spell at Plymouth in 2015/16. Hot prospect Bright Osayi-Samuel is an exciting proposition too.
9. Plymouth (League Two)
Devon’s zig-zagging club have threatened promotion for two seasons running now, having sunk like a stone from a 10th-placed Championship finish in 2007/08. Can you help push them closer to those heights again? Resources are on the lower side for League Two level – you’re only £2k per week off a modest £30k wage budget, and won’t have any cash to spend on incoming stars. But you do have a good squad and assistant manager, plus two excellent prospects in Jordan Bentley (17) and Ben Purrington (20). Luke McCormick is one of the league’s best keepers, while strikers David Goodwillie and Jordan Slew both once joined Blackburn for a combined £3m.
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10. RB Leipzig (Bundesliga)
Germany’s most disliked team are one of the most exciting to manage. Their youthful squad is packed with promise thanks to some big forward planning (and spending) in the lower leagues, and their academy is the envy of its rivals. You’ll get almost £13m to spend on new talent and £74k per week for wages, and board expectations are ludicrously low: just avoid relegation and reach the third round of the German Cup, all while playing attacking football and promoting the kids.
11. Borussia Mönchengladbach (Bundesliga)
It might be too big an ask to win silverware with Gladbach, but they offer up an immensely fun squad that earned Champions League football again last season. There’s loads of cash left for wages (£77k p/w) and £10.3m should be enough for you to add to the talent pool, but in truth you might be worth focusing on untapped potential with one eye on the future. Basic board expectations are Europa League qualification and German Cup quarter-finals, which are hardly unrealistic.
12. Athletic Bilbao (La Liga)
Only being able to sign Basque players may get tiresome after a while, but it’s a fun gimmick for Football Manager purposes that you should probably have a crack at. It’ll naturally put a huge emphasis on your academy, but should you need money there’s £8.6m to spend and £35k per week left for wages. You’ll be expected to qualify for the Europa League, reach at least the semis of this year’s edition and the Copa del Rey quarter-finals. No pressure.
13. Valencia (La Liga)
Well, come on: you can’t do much worse than poor G-Nev. After flopping miserably in the Champions League and finishing 12th last season, it’ll be your job to make Valencia worthy of Europe once more. You’ll be given almost £13m and a £1.34m-per-week wage budget to get the job done, but realistically you’ll have to sell before you buy. There’s plenty of promise in the first team – Joao Cancelo, Jose Gaya, Fede Cartabia, Zakaria Bakkali, Rodrigo and Santi Mina all start the game wanted by other clubs – but not much beyond that. Europa League football is expected.
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14. Marseille (Ligue 1)
Last season’s 13th-placed finish was bitterly disappointing for l’OM, so they’re prepared to back you with £30m and a generous wage bill to make sure they don’t go without European football again. You’ve got fine coaches and scouts to beef up a squad in need of more depth, plus capable Ligue 1 performers in the likes of Lassana Diarra, Florian Thauvin, Clinton N’Jie, Remy Cabella and Hiroki Sakai. Your job is to make them a team.
15. and 16. Milan, Inter (Serie A)
Do we really need to say why? Up for grabs: god-like status at two fallen giants who’ve badly underperformed in recent seasons. At Milan you’ll need to sell before you buy, but more pertinent is the crop of excellent youngsters at your disposal: Gianluigi Donnarumma (17), Alessio Romagnoli (21), Mattia De Sciglio (23), M’Baye Niang (21) and Manuel Locatelli (18). Only European qualifications matter to Milan’s board, expectations which are raised at Inter where a return to the Champions League counts most.
17. Sao Paulo (Brazilian Serie A)
Thanks to the Brazilian league system being spread over two formats and a calendar year, you’ll start your new game a year behind (in November 2015). Starting with Sao Paulo is a good test: fun in that you’ll get to experience the Copa Libertadores, and see which wonderkids you can bring through from a famously strong academy. Player turnover is ludicrous – the season starts with the team having brought in 15 players on loan and chucked another 13 out themselves – so your first task is working out who’s worthy of game time and otherwise. Can you manage the sheer volume of players that Brazilian football will throw at you?
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