History YMMV / FootballManager

** The 2020 edition mimicked real life with the Jurgen Klopp "gegenpress", using high defensive lines, heavy pressing of the opposition in an attempt to force mistakes & quickly attack after gaining the ball that worked so well at Borussia Dortmund and Liverpool also working phenomenally well in-game. [[note]] Weirdly enough, a simple variant of the modern day gegenpress (Just putting as much pressure as you can as soon as you lose the ball) can also work wonders in CM03-04. Try it, you might be pleasantly surprised! [[/note]]

* ScrappyMechanic: Club chairmen are particularly obstructive. "Oh, you took our club from the Conference to the Champions League, and made us the richest club in the world? Good for you. We're not expanding the stadium, though."

** Another unofficial challenge much-loved by players is the Pentagon Challenge[[note]]i.e win the UEFA Champions League, AFC Champions League, CONCACAF Champions League, the Copa Libertadores and the CAF Champions League[[/note]], which can also suck up hundreds of hours of gameplay.

** The 2020 edition mimicked real life with the Jurgen Klopp "gegenpress", using high defensive lines, heavy pressing of the opposition in an attempt to force mistakes & quickly attack after gaining the ball that worked so well at Borussia Dortmund and Liverpool also working phenomenally well in-game.

** In line with the above: promises. Players (and sometimes staff) occasionally want you to make them certain promises, usually proposed during contract negotiations, that must be fulfilled in a certain timeframe. These can range from playing a player in their preferred position and role to investing in a certain part of the squad (for example: improve the quality of your forwards). Although the game will keep track of whether you're currently on course to fulfill or fail your promises, it's often not clear how much you have left to do to fulfill them. You may be playing a player in their favourite position, only for them to end up complaining anyway, because you were one game short of meeting the number of starts required for the promise to kept. Failing promises results in the same vague and difficult to navigate player talks as described above, often leading to ''very'' unhappy players who will either request a transfer or proceed to complain to the press/other players.

** In line with the above: promises. Players (and sometimes staff) occasionally want you to make them certain promises that must be fulfilled in a certain timeframe. These can range from playing a player in their preferred position and role to investing in a certain part of the squad (for example: improve the quality of your forwards). Although the game will keep track of whether you're currently on course to fulfill or fail your promises, it's often not clear how much you have left to do to fulfill them. You may be playing a player in their favourite position, only for them to end up complaining anyway, because you were one game short of meeting the number of starts required for the promise to kept. Failing promises results in the same vague and difficult to navigate player talks as described above, often leading to ''very'' unhappy players who will either request a transfer or proceed to complain to the press/other players.

** Newgen players can be this once the player is a few seasons in. While elite real life players are undoubtedly good, the game appears to stat them rather conservatively compared to elite fake players that will usually pop up at clubs with good youth facilities. Said clubs can produce a staggering number of such players over the course of several seasons. What's more, since these players enter the game as youth players, the game does not assign them insanely high market values until they've had their proper breakthrough. Once the player has good scouting facilities and resources in place, it becomes simple enough to poach extremely potential newgens at low prices from smaller clubs.

* EndingFatigue: In most leagues if a good player stays long enough they can build a perfect football club. They will have a strong scouting network that enables them to find all the best current & future players, a massive stadium that generates gigantic sums of money, the best staff in the game, maximised training & club facilities and billions in cash reserves to pay for it all. Even if the player isn't a tactical genius, the strength of having the best players in the world will make most league & cup matches a formality, rendering the success of a season down to a handful of matches against the few opposition teams that can come close to matching you. The player avatar character does not die, they remain 100 years of age for as long as you wish to keep playing.

** The player happiness feature. This is often tied to their agreed playing time, but even players relatively low on the ladder will complain relatively quickly if not played regularly. Other factors, such as wanting an improved contract, can also affect their happiness. You'll often be able to talk to a player and convince (or threaten) them to go along with your choices, but it's rarely apparent which text options will appease your player, more often than not angering them futher. Unhappy players will have a noticeable drop in performances, may hand in a transfer request or worse; complain to teammates and press. If they're an influential character in the dressing room this may set other players or even the entire squad up against you.

** Spain in general is this compared to other well-known leagues. The Spanish leagues require players to always have a mandatory release clause. Large clubs circumvent this by putting unrealistic prices as release clause, such as hundreds of millions of currencies. Smaller clubs don't have that luxury and will often have much more realistic and affordable clauses. Players at these clubs will not accept high clauses either due to it limiting them in moving to bigger clubs. Expect larger sides from all over Europe (the clauses apply to ALL offers, foreign or domestic) to trigger the clauses of your star players constantly, forcing you to replace them over and over.

** Spain in general is this compared to other well-known leagues. The Spanish leagues require players to always have a mandatory release clause. Large clubs circumvent this by putting unrealistic prices as release clause, such as hundreds of millions of currencies. Smaller clubs don't have that luxury and will often have much more realistic and affordable clauses. Players at these clubs will not accept high clauses either due to it limiting them in moving to bigger clubs. Expect larger sides from all over Europe (the clauses apply to All offers, foreign or domestic) to trigger the clauses of your star players constantly, forcing you to replace them over and over.

** Spain in general is this compared to other well-known leagues. The Spanish leagues require players to always have a mandatory release clause. Large clubs circumvent this by putting unrealistic prices as release clause, such as hundreds of millions of currencies. Smaller clubs don't have that luxury and will often have much more realistic and affordable clauses. They will not accept high clauses either due to it limiting them in moving to bigger clubs. Expect larger sides from all over Europe (the clauses apply to All offers, foreign or domestic) to trigger the clauses of your star players constantly, forcing you to replace them over and over.

** Spain in general is this compared to other well-known leagues. The Spanish leagues require players to always have a mandatory release clause. Large clubs circument this by putting unrealistic prices as release clause, such as hundreds of millions of currencies. Smaller clubs don't have that luxury and will often have much more realistic and affordable clauses. They will not accept high clauses either due to it limiting them in moving to bigger clubs. Expect larger sides from all over Europe (the clauses apply to All offers, foreign or domestic) to trigger the clauses of your star players constantly, forcing you to replace them over and over.

* EightPointEight: In one of the most infamous video game reviews of all time, IGN USA scored the 2009 version a 2.0 because the reviewer didn't realize it wasn't meant to play like [[VideoGame/FIFASoccer FIFA]] or Pro Evolution Soccer. On the other hand, the UK site was more accustomed to the series and gave it the usual high score, a 9.1. The US review caused so much backlash that IGN decided to delete it completely.

** The Country Hero is taken UpToEleven by the long running unofficial "Dafuge" [[note]]so named after the username who created it and latter become the head moderator of the "Challenges" section[[/note]] Challenge. Not only do you have to take a team from the bottom league to the English Premier League, you have to take a team who got ''promoted'' to that bottom league. This often means a completely blank team, with no staff, non-existent training and club facilities and a tiny stadium with no seats. You then have to ''win'' the English Premier league ''and'' the Champions League to complete it. The vast majority of players give up or fail. It takes the best players hundreds of hours to complete it at a minimum. Some constantly reload the game until they get one of the weaker teams being promoted to make it just a bit more challenging.

** {{TruthinTelevision}} since big money clubs like Ajax and Bayern München dominate their leagues with ease with only one or two teams really putting up any resistance.

* SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome: Again like in the real world of Football, the game is designed so you can amass several personal CMOA's over the course of it. Things like coming back from defeat to win a Cup Final with seconds to go or scoring seven or eight goals in a match for example.

** The 20 (and later 25) year hard locked requirement to stay in a stadium before it can be replaced has never been popular. In certain situations, like bringing a lower league team with a new but small stadium up the league pyramid can cripple the team's ability to make money. York City FC in England is one specific team that has suffered from this issue as they had been planning on a new stadium from as early as 2007, which was often put into the game as a ~8,000 seat capacity ground for a team that, with a good player, might end up in the Premier League in 5 seasons.

** The San Marino challenge involves taking San Marino Calcio to the top of italian football and [[JokeCharacter the San Marino national football team to win the World Cup]], which while probably not as difficult as other popular challenges, it takes a very long time. A variation of this challenge is using a team from the sammarinese league instead of San Marino Calcio, due to the league's much lower reputation.

** Taribo West. Freddy Adu. Nicklas Bendtner. Maxim Tsigalko. Fernando Cavenaghi. Freddy Guarin. Billy Jones. Mark Kerr. Cherno Samba. Tonton Zola Moukoko.

* GrowingTheBeard: While Championship Manager and Football Manager were already good games, Football Manager 2007 was a big step forward. The core of the current game is still derived from this version of the game, decades later.

** The 4231 formation that became popular in real life around the turn of the century as a way to counter the 442 has also been a long time effective formation. Playing a formation with one striker allows a three man midfield that is usually a combination of two defensively minded players and one attacking midfielder who is free to roam the pitch looking for space. A common version is the usual goalkeeper and 4 defenders, then two central midfielders with wide attacking forwards and a single striker.