Time to kiss goodbye to your social life, put relationships at risk, disconnect yourself from that awful real world everybody talks about and settle down in darkness: Football Manager is back for 2017. Hooray and yippee indeed.
The full game is released on November 4, but until then there's a perfectly good beta version out there to get familiar with Sports Interactive's latest release. You might well kick off that first game with your own beloved team, but many of you prefer the challenge of more unfamiliar climes.
If you're unsure, here's what you'll be getting from the board at first. (Of course, these digits are always subject to change depending on how brave you feel about asking for more/upping your seasonal targets.)
Premier League
Particularly tasty pickings for Tottenham, with the league's biggest starting transfer kitty and a lot of wiggle room with wages too. Southampton and Swansea are both ripe for transforming into Europe-chasing sides with weighty warchests, and you can aim high with Everton thanks to £45m worth of Farhad Moshiri's hard-earned.
| Team | Transfer budget | Wage budget |
| Arsenal | £39.4m | £3m (£2.4m start) |
| Bournemouth | £3.6m | £885k (£800k start) |
| Burnley | £10m | £582k (£525k start) |
| Chelsea | £40m | £2.98m (£2.7m start) |
| Crystal Palace | £10.6m | £1.4m (£1.3m start) |
| Everton | £45m | £1.56m (£1.4m start) |
| Hull | £6m | £699k (£675k start) |
| Leicester | £9.5m | £1.59m (£1.4m start) |
| Liverpool | £40m | £2.78m (£2.3m start) |
| Manchester City | £28.9m | £3.65m (£3.4m start) |
| Manchester United | £31.3m | £4m (£3.7m start) |
| Middlesbrough | £3m | £1m (£1m start) |
| Southampton | £31m | £1.49m (£1.2m start) |
| Stoke | £9.5m | £1.29m (£1.1m start) |
| Sunderland | £12m | £1.04m (£1m start) |
| Swansea | £23.6m | £1.2m (£1.1m start) |
| Tottenham | £50m | £1.87m (£1.5m start) |
| Watford | £8m | £1.05m (£950k start) |
| West Brom | £9.7m | £1m start (£850k start) |
| West Ham | £6m | £1.44m (£1.4m start) |
Championship
Fancy a challenge? Just check out what poor Burton are up against. If you're all about the money, money, money then Norwich are for you: £10m to blow on new players, and plenty left in the wage tank to lure them in. There's scope to turn Bristol City (£5.5m budget) into promotion candidates too, while at Aston Villa you'll have to sell some players if you want the cash for transfers. There's an ample wage budget, though, so it's probably worth it.
| Team | Transfer budget | Wage budget |
| Aston Villa | £0 | £952k (£850k start) |
| Barnsley | £1m | £111k (£100k start) |
| Birmingham | £500k | £176k (£170k start) |
| Blackburn | £300k | £287k (£245k start) |
| Brentford | £500k | £172k (£165k start) |
| Brighton | £4.5m | £375k (£350k) |
| Bristol City | £5.5m | £222k (£200k start) |
| Burton | £150k | £67k (£61k start) |
| Cardiff | £1.2m | £435k (£425k start) |
| Derby | £4m | £530k (£500k) |
| Fulham | £400k | £352k (£350k start) |
| Huddersfield | £1m | £222k (£205k start) |
| Ipswich | £500k | £217k (£205k start) |
| Leeds | £100k | £243k (£200k start) |
| Newcastle | £5m | £1.14m (£1m start) |
| Norwich | £10m | £828k (£700k start) |
| Nottingham Forest | £500k | £339k (325k start) |
| Preston | £500k | £179k (£165k start) |
| QPR | £1m | £402k (£363k start) |
| Reading | £3m | £393k (£375k start) |
| Rotherham | £250k | £140k (£135k start) |
| Sheff Weds | £2m | £530k (£500k) |
| Wigan | £1m | £257k (£250k) |
| Wolves | £2.5m | £445k (£425k start) |
League One
Oh dear, Charlton. The first thing you'll have to do is trim the wage outgoings, and badly – you're already £32k per week in the hole. Good luck with that. Unsurprisingly, transfer budgets are thin on the ground in the third tier: Peterborough and Sheffield United start with nice kitties from which to pull money from, while at Millwall you'll find a surprisingly nice honey pot for wages.
| Team | Transfer budget | Wage budget |
| AFC Wimbledon | £175k | £36k (£37k start) |
| Bolton | £0 | £183k (£180k start) |
| Bradford | £50k | £67k (£64k start) |
| Bristol Rovers | £25k | £73k (£69k start) |
| Bury | £0 | £51k (£49k start) |
| Charlton | £0 | £128k (£160k start) |
| Chesterfield | £100k | £48k (£45k start) |
| Coventry | £0 | £65k (£66k start) |
| Fleetwood | £10k | £55k (£47k start) |
| Gillingham | £50k | £82k (£77k start) |
| Millwall | £0 | £93k (£89k start) |
| MK Dons | £50k | £82k (£77k start) |
| Northampton | £0 | £44k (£45k start) |
| Oldham | £0 | £47k (£44k start) |
| Oxford | £0 | £50k (£52k start) |
| Peterborough | £400k | £76k (£72k start) |
| Port Vale | £66k | £47k (£44k start) |
| Rochdale | £40k | £38k (£35k start) |
| Scunthorpe | £100k | £65k (£60k start) |
| Sheffield United | £300k | £113k (£105k start) |
| Shrewsbury | £20k | £44k (£41k start) |
| Southend | £75k | £55k (£53k start) |
| Swindon | £150k | £62k (£58k start) |
| Walsall | £100k | £35k (£32k start) |
League Two
With the lowest wage budget in England's top four divisions, you'll have your work cut out attracting the players you want at Cheltenham. It's a similar story at Morecambe, but at least there you'll start with some room to snaffle a free transfer or two to bolster the ranks. The outlook is kind if you're looking to restore Portsmouth to their former glories, with easily League Two's biggest transfer (£150k) and wage (£65k per week) budgets.
| Team | Transfer budget | Wage budget |
| Accrington Stanley | £0 | £28k (£27k start) |
| Barnet | £10k | £30k (£29k start) |
| Blackpool | £50k | £40k (£35k start) |
| Cambridge | £100 | £36k (£35k start) |
| Carlisle | £63k | £31k (£28k start) |
| Cheltenham | £0 | £20k (£19k start) |
| Colchester | £20k | £54k (£52k start) |
| Crawley | £10k | £29k (£27k start) |
| Crewe | £30k | £29k (£27k start) |
| Doncaster | £50k | £56k (£53k start) |
| Exeter | £0 | £32k (£29k start) |
| Grimsby | £10k | £32k (£28k start) |
| Hartlepool | £25k | £30k (£29k start) |
| Leyton Orient | £0 | £52k (£49k start) |
| Luton | £70k | £48k (£45k start) |
| Mansfield | £25k | £37k (£33k start) |
| Morecambe | £0 | £22k (£18k start) |
| Newport County | £20k | £25k (£23k start) |
| Notts County | £75k | £45k (£44k start) |
| Plymouth | £0 | £30k (£28k start) |
| Portsmouth | £150k | £65k (£59k start) |
| Stevenage | £10k | £46k (£40k start) |
| Wycombe | £0 | £30k (£30k start) |
| Yeovil | £0 | £24k (£24k start) |
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