Rebuilds have really been trending amongst Youtubers within the Football Manager Community over the past year or so. These short term Football Manager saves where you aim to rebuild a team by mainly focusing on transfers and recruitment of players, provides a whole new challenge for you.
The quest in these rebuilds is to succeed in the transfers market both by offloading players for as much money possible and use the club’s available transfer budget to sign players who can quickly make an impact and hopefully lead the club to future successes.
If this sounds like a wonderful challenge for Football Manager, here are 5 teams to rebuild on Football Manager 2023. To give you a variety in scenarios and level of challenge I have picked clubs of different stature and thereby a different degree of challenge.
Perhaps you would like to start off with rebuilding a former Premier League winner and try to achieve the impossible as the odds of winning the Premier League is minimal? Or, rebuild one of the biggest clubs in the world by signing only under – 23 players and wonderkids to try to win the Championship within three seasons? The possibilities are many!
Anyway, let us take a closer look at the 8 clubs to rebuild on Football Manager 2023 and the challenges with such a save.
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- Different challenges for FM23 by LutterworthFox [External link]
Rebuilding Leicester City on FM23 – Can you win the English Premier League?!
When Claudio Ranieri guided Leicester City to one of the most shocking Premier League trophies, pundits all over the world described it as a fairytale story. Not only was it the first time Leicester was winning the Premier League 2015/16 in their 131th year since being founded, but the club was newly promoted from the Championship only two years before. Finishing above Wenger’s Arsenal, Tottenham, Manchester City, Chelsea, Manchester United and Liverpool – the big six – paints the picture of the impossible. Especially when they were fighting the relegation battle the season before.
Now, the club is in a turmoil. After loosing one of their most important players, as Kasper Schmeichel went to France for new challenges, Jamie Vardy is reaching the latter stages of his career – turning 36 in January 2023. Even though the Leicester squad is brimming with international midfield stars in the likes of Youri Tielemans, James Maddison and Harvey Barnes, the goalkeeper situation and the entire defensive line seems below-par to avoid the relegation battle for 2022/23 season.
Despite, winning the FA Cup 20/21 and finishing 5th in the Premier League qualifying for the Europa League, the state of Leicester’s financial situation has become a cause of concern for Brendan Rodgers ambitions for Premier League 2022/23. Forced to sell some of their brightest prospects, and not unable to sign players who can lift the club, the disastrous start of the EPL 22/23 campaign tells the picture of a club in chaos. 1 point and 16 goals conceded in 6 matches is as shocking as them becoming the Champions of Premier League with a 10 point lead.
For Football Manager 2023, the challenge with rebuilding Leicester City will be to stay competitive while overhauling the entire squad. Bring in €300 to €400million to reshape the squad by getting rid of players on high wages. That means preparing for life after Jamie Vardy, James Maddison, Jonny Evans, Dennis Praet and Youri Tielemans.
Are you able to do the impossible by guiding Leicester to their second Premier League trophy?
Football Manager 2023 Challenge Level: 5/6
Restore the glory of Olympique Lyon in FM23 – Challenge for Ligue 1 title
Olympique Lyonnais’ 8th place finish in Ligue 1 2021/22 was their worst achievement in the French top division in 25 years! Between 1998/99 and 2010/11 the french club had one of their golden eras with seven (7!) consecutive champions in the beginning of the 2000’s decade.
Looking back, beating Cristiano Ronalfo’s Real Madrid in the round of 16 and eventually reaching a semi-final in the Champions League 2009/10 was the definitive end of Lyon’s golden era. Since then, or at least in the ladt few years, they have never really managed to compete against Paris SG for the throne as the biggest club in France, both in terms of popularity, trophies and finances (incl. Market value).
Under the leadership of Peter Bosz, a former manager of Ajax, Borussia Dortmund and Bayer 04 Leverkusen, the task of restoring the glory of Lyon have begun. The Dutch manager who gave the debut to Alexander Isak, Jadon Sancho, Florian Wirtz and Dan-Axel Zagadou is famed for his attacking brand of football influenced by the Dutch Total Football.
At Olympique Lyon, the squad have been improved with a number of experienced internationals. Jerome Boateng, Corentin Tolisso, Moussa Dembele, Alexandre Lacazette, Nicolas Tagliafico have all entered the club in recent years, providing the perfect mix of youngsters and experienced players that on the paper could be capable of competing for a top three position.
However, despite the club got Rayan Cherki, Mohamed El Arouch, Custello Lukeba and Malo Gusto in their ranks along with wonderkid Johann Lepenant and talented Säel Kumbedi, the club’s youth academy is not brimming with talents. At least, if we only look at the French Under-21 international squads and below.
The challenge with Olympique Lyon for Football Manager 2023 could be to offload any players over the age of 23 then look to sign only players under the age of 23. The project is to build a club in a similar mould of RB Salzburg or Borussia Dortmund – skilled at developing youngsters by being a stepping stone club whilst also competing for the championship.
Are you able to bring success to Olympique Lyon by turning youth to gold with a starting XI of the best wonderkids in FM23 alongside superstar newgens from the club’s youth intakes?
Football Manager 2023 Challenge Level: 3/6
Why not rebuilding Juventus on FM23?
Everything must come to an end one day… After 9 consecutive Serie A titles(!), 5 Coppa Italia trophies and a handful of Super Coppa wins, Juventus utterly dominated the Italian top division over a 10 year period – lasting from 2011 to 2020. Their golden era was abruptly ended once the Covid-19 pandemic put football on hold. Experiencing a similar faith to FC Barcelona where high wage costs, lack of income from gate receipts and reduced TV and sponsorship money, the pandemic hit the Old Lady from Turin hard.
From regularly making the double, the last two season has been a wake-up call for all Juve fans around the globe. With 70 major honours in their trophy cabinet, Juventus is the most successful club in Italy. However, the last two seasons Juventus have nearly missed out of the Champions League qualification spot by finishing in the 4th positions two years in row.
Rebuilding Juventus on Football Manager 2023 might be one of the easier challenges but if you’re forced to put out on sale the entire squad and rebuild it from scratch, the challenge becomes harder.
The current value of the Juventus squad ranks below both Inter Milan and A.C Milan. (€50-100milion difference in total squad market value, according to Transfermarkt). At the same time, Juventus got one of the oldest starting XI in Serie A at 29.3 in average age.
Getting rid of Juan Cuadrado (34), legend Leonardo Bonucci (35), Mattia de Sciglio (29), Alex Sandro (31) and Angel di Maria (34) would ease things quickly but my idea of an Juventus rebuild on FM23 is to completely overhaul the squad. Out with Paul Pogba, Leandro Paredes and any other players not fitting into your system, or who are on high wages and in with players you can sell for profit.
It’s time to fix Juventus’ financial problems with a new recruitment strategy implemented – one not based on signing players of higher reputation by spending a fortune on wages, agents fees and transfer fees.
Are you able to restore the glory of the Old Lady in FM23? It could be the perfect FM23 beta save!
Football Manager 2023 Challenge Level: 1/6
Restore the glory of Borussia Mönchengladback on Football Manager 23
Amongst a few fallen giants in Germany that could be restored on Football Manager 23, Borussia Mönchengladbach could provide a great but tough challenge for you. Founded in 1900 and based in North-Rhine Westphalia – the region where honorable clubs like Schalke 04, Borussia Dortmund, Bayer 04 Leverkusen and VfL Bochum – Gladbach had their best period in the 70s when they won all of their five Bundesliga titles. In fact, their last major trophy won was their second DFB-pokal in 1994/95.
Last year, they finished in 10th place, their lowest position in Bundesliga since 2010/11. The former two-times UEFA Cup winners (74/75 & 78/79) must now focus on the Bundesliga since not being able to qualify for any of the European tournament.
With a squad possessing of a number of decent international stars, like Marcus Thuram, Stefan Lainer, Luca Netz, Jonas Hoffman, Florian Neuhaus, Ko Itakura and Hannes Wolf, it’s safe to say they have underperformed. Especially, Marcus Thuram has scored as many goals in the first six matches as he did for the entire 2021/22 season. Question is whether to build around him or sell one of the players with highest value to rebuild Bor. Mönchengladbach?!
The challenge for Football Manager 2023 is to turn the fallen giant Borussia Mönchengladbach into a Bundesliga title contender, and with time try to win 5 consecutive trophies, just like they did in the 70s. If that’s no challenge enough, trying to develop the next Jupp Heynckes and let your newgen battle for the club’s record goal scorer title, which Jupp Heynckes currently holds with 296 goals in 411 appearances.
Football Manager 2023 Challenge Level: 4/6
FM23 Challenge: Return Valencia into the top of Europe
Nearly 20 years have gone since Valencia won a major trophy. Despite winning the Copa del Rey in 2018/19, their last La Liga trophy was won 2003/04 – a season where they also won the UEFA Cup for the first … and so far last time. Their performance in the 2000/01 Champions League where they became runners-up beaten on penalties by Bayern Münich still sits fresh in my memory. Most of it due to Norwegian striker John Carew and Argentinian magician Pablo Aimar.
Over the past 10 years, Valencia have faced financial struggles, despite being owned by Singaporean billionaire Peter Lim. Directors, Managers and players have been either forced out of the club or resigned voluntarily either due to disagreements or forced to cut the club’s wage costs.
This instability and chaos have affected their on-pitch performance. For the last four seasons they have never finished better than 9th place and competing in European competitions ever again seems like a distant dream. Perhaps the new manager Gennaro Gattuso ca change the clubs fortune?!
Your challenge for Football Manager 2023 is to rebuild the club and create a foundation for future success by heading into ‘Project Rebirth’ with a new vision for the club. Either you focus on developing the talents coming through the Academy by taking advantage of the club’s top level training facilities, or look to master the transfer market by a ‘buy low, sell high’ strategy revolving around under-25 bargains.
Either way, it will be a difficult challenge to bring Valencia into a top European team and it might require rebuilding the club over a few years before you can even hope for overcoming Barcelona, Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid for the La Liga Championship.
Football Manager 2023 Challenge Level: 5/6
Other great rebuild saves on Football Manager 2023
If you didn’t find a great Football Manager 2023 save above, here’s three more FM23 Challenges we can recommend! Instead of hunting for championships and titles, these saves is more about rebuilding the club to reach promotions to the first tier of their respective country. If this sounds more in your ally, continue reading!
Saint-Etienne – French Ligue 2
After 1-1 in each of the two relegation play-off legs, the decision whether Saint-Etienne would be relegated or Auxerre promoted to Ligue 1 had to be decided on penalties. When Auxerre scored on all their five penalty takes while Boudebouz of Saint-Etienne missed, the Greens was forced to take the painful step down to Ligue 2. In the 2021-22 season, the French side encountered a loosing streak of 7 games, conceding 77 goals whilst only scoring 42. Their defensive can not yet be given the clean bill of health. So far this season, they have conceded 15 goals in 7 matches and sits next-to-last on the Ligue 2 table.
Winning their 11 Ligue 1 trophy, or getting back to Ligue 1 after a short stint in the second division seems very unlikely at this point. Restoring the glory of Saint-Etienne to its former golden era, where they won the Ligue 1 Championship in four consecutive seasons will be a difficult task. Luckily, the squad value is one of the highest in Ligue 2, meaning you could rebuild the club by selling some of the best players and highest earners to focus more on the club’s exceptional youth facilities and possibilities to develop the next Wesley Fofana, Allan Saint-Maximin, William Saliba, Bafétimbi Gomis or Kurt Zouma.
Saint-Etienne and its Under-18 side are in fact one of the best youth sides in France. They have won the Coupe Gambardella four times – as many times as more reputable Olympique Lyon and have ended runners-up 6 times.
Take on the perfect youth development save on Football Manager 2023 by restoring the fallen giant Saint-Etienne on FM23!
West Brom – Sky Bet Championship
A relegation from Premier League could be disastrous for a football club. Not only will they loose out of nearly £100million in TV money, but often clubs have used a great deal of money to improve their squad and the wage bill have naturally increased to a limit where a loss of commercial revenue and stadium attendance will result in a poor financial situation it’s hard to get out of.
Over the years, we’ve seen the windfall of several clubs failing to promote to Premier League after a relegation. This has been the case with both Stoke City, Hull, Sunderland and Sheffield United, to name a few.
West Bromwich Albion relegated from the Premier League after the 2020/2021. Back then they spent €42million on the signing of Karlan Grant, Matheus Pereira and Grady Diangana – a huge difference to this year’s transfer spendings of only €1.3Million on 22 year old Jayson Molumby (Brighton) and 23 year old Brandon Thomas-Asante from Salford signalizing a club on the brink of a turmoil.
The squad Steve Bruce manage over, is one of the highest in terms of average age in the Championship this season, coming at 26.9. On the plus side, the squad is made up of mostly English players, with only 7 foreigners in the squad. This can be a great source of challenge for Football Manager 2023 by taking charge of West Brom.
By trying to get promoted to the Premier League with a squad based off on a UK-only starting XI, you can try to overwin the multicultural Premier League top teams. You can set further restrictions to your transfer policy by forcing yourself to sign only English players under the age of 25 writing yourself in the modern history books as the latest club to field a all-English starting XI in the Premier League, and become champions with it!
Football Manager 2023 Challenge Level: 6/6
1.FC Kaiserslautern – Germany
Promoted from the 3.Liga after last season, 1.FC Kaiserslautern’s rise to glory have begun. Currently managed by Dirk Schuster, the fallen giant possesses one of the oldest and ‘cheapest’ squads in terms of overall market value.
FC Kaiserslautern is a team that often comes to my mind when recommending teams to manage for Football Manager. Since being founded in 1900, 122 years ago, the club is amongst the top 10 most successful clubs in Germany with four Bundesliga titles, two DFB-pokals and one DFL-Supercup trophy.
It is now 10 years since the last time Die roten Teufel participated in the Bundesliga, and even longer since they won their last Bundesliga title. It happened in 1997/98.
The current Kaiserslautern squad could be do for a major rebuild. Especially, if they should go on a back-to-back promotion to the Bundesliga. With only Erik Durm and Philipp Klement as players in my knowledge, restoring the fallen giants of Kaiserslautern could be a great Football Manager 2023 save idea to get to learn more about players in the German lower leagues.
Since you can’t expect a lot of money when rebuilding Kaiserslautern, you might be forced to use loans, free transfers and poaching for cheap bargains to reshape the squad. While selling some of the best players will be a great source for more money to sign players, you might need these players to build a foundation for future success. Keeping hold of Kenny Prince Redondo and Mike Wunderlich, the current top scorers at the club might benefit you in the long term, as you immediately renew their contracts to try to increase their market value.
From then on, it will be a long-term project to turn Kaiserslautern into a club to be reckoned with. It’s a challenge where you don’t need any specific transfer policies or recruitment plans in place to make it tougher, even though I fancy the challenge of putting a youth recruitment plan in place – focusing on the development of youth coming through my own Academy.
Football Manager 2023 Challenge Level: 5/6
Teams to Rebuild on Football Manager 2023 – League by League Edition
If you need further suggestions on teams to rebuild on Football Manager 2023, FranklyFM84 have been busy after the announcement of Football Manager 2023 to give you a league by league guide on teams to rebuild. Below you’ll find links to all the episodes in this Football Manager 2023 rebuild series looking at different nations and leagues.
5 English Premier League Clubs to Rebuild on FM23
With FM23 release date confirmed, time has come to start planning who you want to manage on Football Manager 2023.. If you want to start off in the English Premier League, there are 5 interesting projects that you can take on, as all of these clubs will need a rebuild in one way or another!
Find out who these five English Premier League clubs are. Click here to watch the video!
Spanish La Liga Clubs to Rebuild on FM23
Perhaps you have already decided on your team to manage on Football Manager 2023. However, as a short-term save, rebuilding one of these Spanish La Liga clubs on FM23 could be a great affair.
Discover which clubs Frankly recommends to manage in Spain for FM23.
