Over the past week, several new features were announced by Sports Interactive for their upcoming edition, which will be revealed to the public at the end of October.
As announced in the previous article, the main categories so far are:
🧢 Coaching Staff Recommendations
👔 Club Ambitions
⚽️ Development Centre
📸 Melhorias Gráficas
⏱️ The Road Ahead
📱 Other Features Announced on Twitter
🚗 Match Engine
🔎 Scouting
Club Ambitions
Whenever we're appointed manager of a team, we have to live up to the expectations laid out by the board.
However, in this new edition of Football Manager, this side of the game gets a complete overhaul, offering a unique experience in each team's long-term growth. It'll be up to us, the players, to guide the club towards its stated goals.
This is how the 'Club Ambition' feature is introduced, which goes beyond the goals set by our board, aiming to provide sustainable growth while also reinforcing the team's existing identity.
Ambitions are split into three categories: identity, ongoing goals and future goals.
Clubs are increasingly run like businesses, but every club still has its own identity, one example is Barcelona's style of play, which traces back to their famous La Masia academy, or even Athletic Bilbao with their well-known policy of only fielding Basque players.
For that reason, one of the ambition categories will be about maintaining and reinforcing a club's identity, without compromising the season's sporting results.
Future goals, in this case over 5 years, will be broken down into yearly targets.
Goals can be financial, transfer-related, about playing style, club growth, or even facilities. The more ambitious your board is, the harder your job will be.
Ongoing goals, are plans that were already underway before you took over as the club's manager, which the board wants you to stay focused on and not neglect. We can use the example of SL Benfica's current board, who will keep demanding that you rely on the youth academy to achieve success..
Discuss ambitions
We'll be able to negotiate these ambitions at the start of each job or at the end of each season. That said, we'll have the option to suggest a different type of goal for our 5-year plan, or even postpone certain ambitions by one or two seasons, depending on how flexible the board is.
For example, if you're asked for trophies within 3 years and you doubt you can pull that off, why not ask to swap it, offering a European competition spot, or even a big commercial return, in exchange?
On the other hand, if you feel you could aim for an even bigger goal than proposed, but achieving it would mean sacrificing another competition, you'll be able to renegotiate with the board.
As Club ambitions will be dynamic, and will evolve depending on how easily or not you manage to hit the proposed goals.
Be warned: the more important these ambitions are to the club or board, the less room you'll have to negotiate them, and if you fail to meet the targets you agreed to in exchange, your job itself could be on the line.
Playing style
Just like in real life, we'll be shaping our playing style over time. If successful, we'll be recognised the world over for it,, a bit like Guardiola and his Tiki-Taka.
This could mean offers from big clubs who identify with our playing style,giving us an edge over far more reputable managers who use other tactical models and dynamics.
Welcome meeting
All of these ambitions will be presented at the initial welcome meeting at the club,which will take place in an office setting that varies depending on the team's facilities.
In that meeting, every player at our disposal will be listed, including the strongest possible starting XI, and finally, we'll be able to schedule various activities involving the squad and coaching staff.
Ambitions have been added to the board's satisfaction rating.
A monthly performance report will now be provided, delivered to our inbox, and also available to check whenever needed under the board tab.
Each area of our performance will be rated from Very Poor to Excellent, along with relevant feedback and notable recent achievements, letting us know which areas we should maintain or improve.
New and more varied types of requests to the board have also been added.
For example, when asking for an increased transfer budget, the board will respond with a negotiable figure. Another new feature is an increase in conversation options with the board.
