Who to manage in Football Manager 2026: Nottingham Forest & Wrexham among best teams to play with

It’s fair to say that the latest edition of Football Manager hasn’t had the easiest path to release. Last year, for the first time since Sports Interactive’s legendary management sim was released as Championship Manager way back in the nineties, the developers were forced to cancel the game’s launch after they failed to get a new engine up to scratch in time for release – meaning that Football Manager 2026 arrives after a two-year wait and with a ton of pressure on its virtual shoulders.

That failure is in now in the past, however, and FM26 will arrive on 4 November with that new engine in place, a bucket-load of fresh features and tactical overhauls and, perhaps most intriguingly of all, the arrival of women’s football for the first time in franchise history.

Some players will be entering their dugouts even earlier, of course, with the early access beta due to launch on Thursday 23 October – but whether you’re donning your imaginary tracksuit this week or on the day of the official launch, which club should you manage for your very first save? We’ve picked out six teams – from fallen giants to teams on the brink of real-life glory - that have our attention as saves that could either be a ton of fun or a serious challenge in the latest edition…

The most fun saves to play on FM26 for newcomers

Nottingham Forest: Imagine that Evangelos Marinakis had picked you instead of Ange Postecoglou to pick up the pieces after Nuno Espirito Santo’s sacking – would you, like the ill-fated former Spurs boss, try to turn Forest into a high-pressing attacking team, or would you defend deep and hit teams on the counter just like Santo did?

Forest should offer an entertaining middle ground between the very toughest saves and the gentler end of the spectrum. There’s plenty of quality in the squad, but bigger teams will be ravening as they try to snag the Murillos and Morgan Gibbs-Whites of the world in the transfer market. Can you keep the side together and make Forest perennial European contenders? Or will fighting on two fronts with a volatile chairman ready to sack you at the drop of a hat prove too difficult?

Juventus: Most Football Manager connoisseurs consider the very biggest teams to be somewhat boring saves – they tend to have so much cash and quality that it can be a bit too easy once you know the ropes. Juventus, however, could be a pretty interesting team to take charge of.

They’re hardly broke, but in real life they’re bleeding money steadily and don’t have cash to throw around like crazy. They’ve got some exciting talents like Kenan Yildiz to build around, but can they hang on to them long enough to muster up a Scudetto after years of underachievement? Juventus aren’t quite fallen giants, but they are stumbling a bit – getting them to stand tall once more should test your managerial talents while making sure that you aren’t far from a deep Champions League run if you get things right.

Wrexham: While this isn’t a save that will appeal to those fans who can’t stand the thought of the Welsh outfit’s Disney-fuelled rise up the EFL ladder, coaching Wrexham is also a potentially fascinating challenge in Football Manager terms, and is likely to be among the most popular first saves in the game given their new-found global fanbase.

Wrexham have huge ambitions and bulging coffers – by Championship standards, anyway – but getting out of the second tier can be tricky and establishing even the richest EFL club in the Premier League is never a straightforward matter. Will you ride Ryan Reynolds’ well-tailored coat-tails to glory, or will you find the going as tough as Phil Parkinson is in real life? This is a team who have won just two of their first 10 games despite outspending most of the league, after all.

The hardest FM26 saves for veteran players

Lyon: Take a massive team with major financial problems – but also one of the best youth academies in world football – and throw them into a league dominated by one of the wealthiest sides in the game, and see if you can become champions of France and restore Lyon to their former glory.

Will you work to hold on to potential superstars like Malick Fofana, or steady the fiscal ship before promoting youngsters over the course of several years? Can you work some tactical magic to not only beat PSG to the title but to stay at the top for a generation? If Lyon’s financial situation is fairly reflected in the game, then this could be a really interesting challenge for experienced players who still want to play near the top of a ‘big five’ league. Those looking for a traditional fallen giant save could also consider Bordeaux, forcibly relegated all the way down to the fourth tier of French football. Now that’s a challenge.

Newcastle United Women: There are 11 women’s leagues included in FM26, including the top two tiers of the English game – and as everyone who knows the women’s game well will tell you, the gap between the WSL2 and the top of the WSL is pretty huge. Bridging it will test even the most experienced FM player.

You could pick pretty much any team in the second tier of the English game and find it tough going, but Newcastle – whose team is on the up after recent investment after years of neglect – might be the most interesting starting point. They’ve got a launching pad but are new to the second tier and have a lot of ground to make up. Good luck.

Sampdoria: Were it not for a four-point deduction handed to Brescia at the eleventh hour last season, one of Italy’s most storied teams would have been relegated to Serie C. Sufficed to say that restoring them to the top of Serie A should be pretty damn tough.

You’d be taking over a team that expects to challenge for promotion due to sheer weight of history but which has a squad which wasn’t strong enough to stay afloat in Serie B on sporting merit. Silverware is a long way off, but the stature of the club demands success in the short term regardless. Oh, and they have some of the best kits in world football, so you’ll look good as you fight to drag Sampdoria back to where they belong.