10 Of The Hardest Saves In Football Manager 2024, Ranked

Key Takeaways

• Football Manager 2024 offers a deep football management simulator with licensed leagues and tactical complexity.
• Certain clubs present challenging opportunities due to financial woes, relegation struggles, and strict transfer policies.
• From facing relegation debt-ridden clubs to navigating transfer embargoes, these challenges require strategic acumen.

The Football Manager franchise offers players a deep and immersive football management simulator, boasting compelling features such as its 3D match engine and tactical complexity. Football Manager 2024 has the most licensed leagues out of any other sports game, so players can choose from a wealth of available clubs to manage.

Whilst every team offers certain challenges for their manager to overcome, some clubs are undeniably more difficult to manage than others. It could be that they lack financial resources, possess limited squad depth, or face fierce competition in their respective leagues. Only a player at the height of their game could lead these clubs in Football Manager 2024 to long-awaited glory.

10 Luton Town FC

Battling Giants

• League: English Premier Division
• Stadium: Kenilworth Road
• Financial Status: Secure

Following their back-to-back promotion from League One, Luton find themselves battling in the Premier League with one of the weakest squads and some of the lowest wage/transfer budgets in their competition. As if that isn’t bad enough, they’ll be facing some of the best teams in the game, such as Manchester City and Liverpool, on a regular basis.

In reality, Luton was comfortably relegated from the Premier League, but it’ll be the player’s job to avoid that fate. With some clever tactics and plucky transfers, it should be manageable, so long as they don’t underestimate the brutality of England’s top flight.

9 Arminia Bielefeld

Stop The Drop

• League: German 3. Liga
• Stadium: SchucoArena
• Financial Status: Okay

Things went from bad to worse for Arminia Bielefeld when they were relegated in back-to-back years, dropping from the Bundesliga down to Germany’s third division. They’re a team in need of a manager to come in and steady the ship before they can think about climbing back up the German ranks again.

Luckily, their finances are okay and there’s space in the wage budget to make some minor additions to the squad, though there’s currently an over-reliance on loans. The key for any manager stepping into the role will be to use the already young squad and maximize their potential.

8 Athletic Bilbao

Region Locked

• League: Spanish First Division
• Stadium: San Mames
• Financial Status: Rich

At first glance, managing Athletic Bilbao might not look so difficult. They have a talented squad, strong finances and good facilities. The real challenge comes into play due to their strict transfer policies.

Managers can only sign players from the Basque region, meaning any foreign wonderkids are off the cards. Competing at the top of Spanish football becomes largely luck-based, with future success largely reliant on a golden generation coming through the youth system.

7 FK Austria Vienna

Deep In The Red

• League: Austrian Premier Division
• Stadium: Franz-Horr Stadion
• Financial Status: In Debt

To say FK Austria Vienna has fallen on some hard times recently would be an understatement. A team that used to rule over Austrian football has since found themselves £52 million in debt, with negative £18 million in the bank.

Due to the financial crisis at the club, their best players have already been transfer-listed, and that’ll likely remain the case until the debt is sorted. Thus, managers won’t have the luxury of growing attached to key players, and they’ll need to be on a constant lookout for free replacements.

6 Dover Athletic FC

Starting From The Bottom

• League: English Vanarama National League South
• Stadium: Crabble Athletic Ground
• Financial Status: Okay

If players are looking for a long-term save, then there’d be no greater challenge than managing Dover Athletic. They’re comfortably the worst team in England, and they don’t even have a full squad to pick from with no goalkeepers signed at the club.

Pair that with a generally awful squad, hardly any wages to spare, and no transfer budget, and managers will find it incredibly hard to keep them from getting relegated, let alone climb up the English divisions.

5 Manaus

Relegation Bound

• League: Brazilian National Third Division
• Stadium: Ismael Benigno
• Financial Status: Okay

A club that was founded just over a decade ago, Manaus looks destined for relegation. The bottom four teams go down in their league, and with their squad depth it’s no surprise that they’re predicted to finish second from bottom.

The silver lining is that there’s a small amount of wages left to work with, and the club doesn’t require financial repair. With the right signings and squad management, players could stand a chance at guiding this Brazilian newcomer to unseen success.

4 Bursaspor

Drowning In Debt

• League: Turkish 2. League White Group
• Stadium: Timsah Park Stadyumu
• Financial Status: Insecure

Bursaspor was one of the few Turkish teams not from Istanbul to have won the Turkish league. Now though, with over £40 million in debt and playing in the lower divisions, they’re a team long past their glory days.

Managing the debt is one thing, but managing it with no wage budget and a team largely composed of under-23s makes it even more difficult. Repairing the club’s financial damage whilst making them successful again will take more than just some clever tactics.

3 Southend United

Points Deduction

• League: English Vanarama National League
• Stadium: Roots Hall
• Financial Status: Okay (Transfer Embargo)

When it rains, it pours, and there’s a perfect storm on the south-eastern coast of England. Southend United failed to clear a HM Revenue and Customs debt and were therefore docked 10 points for the beginning of the season.

If starting on -10 points isn’t challenging enough, then consider that the club is also under a transfer embargo until January, they’re over £500k in debt, and they’re in the middle of building a new stadium. There really aren’t many starts to a save as difficult to manage as this one.

2 FC Vaduz

No Room For Failure

• League: Swiss Challenge League
• Stadium: Rheinpark Stadion
• Financial Status: Okay

Everything has to go perfectly for players managing FC Vaduz if they want European glory. To qualify for the Europa Conference League, they have to win the Liechtensteiner Cup, as they’re not eligible for league qualification (since they’re a Lichtensteinian team competing in Switzerland).

Therefore, to even qualify for the Champions League, FC Vaduz must win the Europa Conference league, then win the Europa League, to finally play in Europe’s greatest competition. One slip-up along the way? Then it’s right back to the Europa Conference League – assuming players even qualify to begin with.

1 Shenzhen

Everything’s Gone Wrong

• League: Chinese Super League
• Stadium: Bao’an Stadium
• Financial Status: Insecure (Transfer Embargo)

Where to begin with Shenzhen? The Chinese league will have already started by the time players take over, and Shenzhen are rock bottom with 2 points. Their league position shouldn’t come as a surprise though…

Shenzhen are under a transfer embargo for the remainder of the season, the pre-existing squad is largely incomplete and poorly balanced, and to top it off they’re £20 million in debt. There isn’t even an assistant manager or director of football to assist the new manager. Players will have to solely rely on their tactical prowess and team management skills to save this club, as everything else is off the cards.