Some bets between friends end with someone paying for dinner. Pardoe Kendrick’s ended with him picking the tactics for an English football club. Seriously.
The idea came from a joke any FM player gets right away: if Queens Park Rangers are in the Championship, why not take Kings Park Rangers, down in the English 9th tier, and put them above their famous “cousin”? Pardoe, 23, accepted the challenge and took it so seriously that the real club ended up noticing him.
From the screen to the touchline
In March 2026, Kings Park Rangers invited him to help out in a real game. According to the press, he traveled around 900 kilometers to get there. When they asked for an idea, he did not show up with some miracle tactic from a forum. He suggested a 4-4-2. Simple, classic, the kind your uncle swears fixes everything.
The opponent was Framlingham Town. Kings Park Rangers won 3-2.
So does FM actually teach you anything?
Easy now. One 9th-tier game does not make anyone the next Guardiola, and Pardoe would probably be the first to say so. But the story has that charm only Football Manager can create: hours and hours fine-tuning a tiny club on the computer and, one day, watching that same team win in front of you, with the tactic you picked.
Deep down, it is the fantasy we have all had in the middle of a save. The difference is that he lived it.
What about you? Which small club would you like to pick the tactics for, for a day? Tell us in the comments.
