Football Manager for Dummies - Guide

This guide was initially shared as a series of posts on SI forums and is published here with the kind permission of Zemahh (the author).

Introduction

As someone who's been addicted to this wonderful game for nearly a decade, I thought why not compile my knowledge and tips and tricks I've learned along the way into a somewhat readable thread (my personal scribbles can be a mess!) and share them with the community. Writing is something I enjoy doing and if a single person finds it useful, it's worth the effort.

With the arrival of Football Manager 2021, there's sure to be plenty of new players who don't know exactly where to begin, or would find some general pointers useful. If I was to run the game for the first time today, I'd be intimidated! I will attempt to keep this as short and concise as possible, without leaving out any key elements of how I personally approach Football Manager.

This is not supposed to be a guide, however. Over the years, many fantastic ones have been written, so if this is not for you, take a look around and you're sure to find something better suited to your experience or playing style.

Should you have any questions or a better way of doing things you want to share with me and the rest of the community, please feel free to comment!

Index

To make it easier to read, this is split in multiple chapters. All of them will be linked in the index below, should you only be interested in particular topics. The index can be found at the bottom of each chapter.