Eventhough we are months away from Football Manager 2023 release, and the first news about FM23 features arrives, I thought it was time to look at some of the most interesting Football Manager 2023 save ideas that’s now possible after 2021-2022 seasons promotions and relegations. In fact, there are new challenges of teams to manage in Football Manager arising over the summer!
By providing our Football Manager 2023 save ideas before the summer holiday, you’ll get the chance to embark on a final adventure over the summer or use our recommendations of teams to manage to help you identify your long-term save on Football Manager 2023.
To bring you our 10 Football Manager 2023 save ideas you need to do, either through the summer as your final Football Manager 2022 save, or wait on the much anticipated FM23 release, I have looked at promoted and relegated clubs across the European leagues to give you a few suggestions on who to manage on FM23.
Get more FM23 Save Ideas
With our Football Manager 2022-2023 league update database in your repository, you can immediately embark on the new challenges below! This database updates leagues across 18 nations in Europe, correcting all the leagues for the 2022-2023 season. Here I’ve promoted and relegated all clubs for the 2022-2023 season, so you can start a new FM22 save, as if it was Football Manager 2023.
Table of Content
- AFC Wimbledon (English Sky Bet League Two)
- Bordeaux (French Ligue 2)
- Willem II (Dutch Keuken Kampion Divisie)
- Derby County (English Sky Bet League One)
- L.R Vicenza (Italian Serie C)
- 1.FC. Kaiserslautern (German 2.Bundesliga)
- CF Intercity (Spanish Primera Division RFEF)
- Nancy Lorraine (French Championnat National)
- Os Belenenses (Liga 3 Portugal)
- Admira Wacker Mödling (Austrian Hpybet 2.Liga)
The Most Interesting FM23 Teams to Manage…
Which clubs that are the most interesting for you to manage on FM23 will be a highly subjective topic. Regardless, I think I have managed to identify some clubs that will be of interest to you when Football Manager 2023 drops mid-late October/November 2022. So without any further ado, let’s look at some of the new challenges that has caught my attention after the 2021-2022 season have come to its end.
Either you wish to embark on a final adventure over the summer or keep it in your notebooks for FM23 save ideas, that’s all up to you!
But without any further ado, here are my suggestions on FM23 teams to manage that could possible help you to find your coming Football Manager 2023 save!
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AFC Wimbledon (Sky Bet League Two)
After the dissolvement of Wimbledon FC, AFC Wimbledon was established in 2002 by its former supporters who were strongly opposed the honorable club should move the club to Milton Keys. For the last 20 years, it’s been a quick but wonderful journey from non-league football in the Counties Leagues to professional football in League One for ‘The Dons‘. After six years in the Sky Bet League One, the club had to take the tough step back into League Two for the 2022-2023 season.
After fighting the relegation battle both in 2018-19 and 2019-2020 season, the relegation to League Two had laid in the cards for long. Never been able to finish higher than their 15th place in League One 2016-2017, the club sponsored by Sports Interactive is the ideal club for a zero to hero challenge where you also rebuild the club for FM23 by creating a club DNA the Wombles fans can be proud of.
Even though AFC Wimbledon is a new club on paper, the club’s history and legacy remains. As one of the founding members of the Premier League and most-known for the Crazy Gang, Wimbledon F.C’s past achievements are something to aim after in your FM23 save.
Challenge: As a long-term objective, you should aim to take the club back to Premier League and win the FA Cup, as Wimbledon F.C did in 1988.
Bordeaux (Championnat National)
After 30 consecutive years in the top division, it was to many’s surprise Bordeaux relegated to the French Ligue 2 Championnat National 1*. With joint points as Metz and 1 less point than Saint-Etienne, one of the most successful clubs in French football is now forced to face Rodez and Pau rather than competing against PSG and Monaco. The relegation must really hurt especially when their arch-rival Toulouse managed to promote to Ligue 1 ahead of 2022-2023 season.
The club who won its last Ligue 1 title in 2008-09 is one of many clubs who have been dramatically hit financially by the pandemic, as they went into administration in April 2021 after its owners wouldnt fund the club any longer. The need to cut losses and reduce the squad’s wage bills before 2022-2023 season is one of the main priorities to reduce the club’s €64million deficit.
With stars like Benoit Costil, Marcelo, Raoul Bellanova and Ui-jo Hwang leaving on a free or looking for a departure, the Bordeaux squad might need to rebuild the squad with homegrown talents to better their financial situation for a brighter future.
The current situation is not entirely uncommon to Les Girondins. After entering adminstriation in 1990, the club eventually rise from the ashes with young talents like Zinedine Zidane, Bixente Lizarazu and Christophe Dugarry, who helped the club win the Intertoto Cup 1995 and UEFA Cup final 1996. The trio were also part in the memorable France 1998 squad who eventually lifted the World Cup trophy in a 3-0 win against Brazil!
Challenge: Bordeaux stands out as one of the likely Youth Development saves to do in Football Manager 2023. Give trust in youth and aim to relive one of the greatest periods in the club history of Bordeaux as you try to emulate their achievements in the 1990s by retaining the Ligue 1 trophy for the seventh and eigth time whilst also competing in the Champions League.
* On June 15th, 2022, Bordeaux was relegated to the Championnat National by the French DNCG for breaking the French football financial regulations. The club have made an appeal about the matter.
Willem II (Keuken Kampion Divisie)
If we look away from their one-off seasons in the Dutch Eerste Divisie (2011/12 and 2013/14), they have featured in the top division of Netherlands since 1987/88 season. The Tricolores based in Tilburg has been the stepping stone club for a number of Dutch football legends. Jaap Stam, Frenkie de Jong, Virgil van Dijk and Marc Overmars have all been part of the club at some point.
Founded 126 years ago in August 2022, the Dutch club have often falled victimed of being in the shadows of PSV, AZ, Feyenoord and Ajax both when it comes to players developed and honors, they have managed to win the Championship on three occasions and the KNVB Cup two times – putting them in the 8th place on the nobility calendar.
Even though their last Championship came in 1954/55, and their last KNVB Cup trophy won happened in 19662/63, managing Willem II Tilburg on FM23 could be a great restore the glory save where you aim to surpass Ajax’s achievements, or at least try to win two Eredevisie titles in 5 years and make the club qualify for European football.
Derby County (Sky Bet League One)
As one of the founding members of the Football League in 1888, Derby County have a long and pride history in the English league. Having won the English First Division (now Premier League) on two occasions (1971-72 and 1974-75) under Brian Clough and Dave MacKay, The Rams success history have been on a greater decline since their greatest era where they participated in the European Cup on a regular basis.
After 14 years in the Championship, the financial crisis the club has been over the last three years eventually resulted in the club going into Administration in September 2021. With 12 points deducted for going into administration and further 9 points deducted for financial irregularities, Derby has been one of the hardest clubs to manage on Football Manager 2022! This is believed to continue on FM23 as the takeover of the club hasn’t yet to be completed. If not, the transfer embargo remains with only five first-team players under a contract beyond June 2022.
With no money to buy players, and a potential 9 points deduction in Sky Bet League One, a further relegation to League Two seems possible… but in Football Manager anything can happen!
Taking on the challenge of managing Derby County in FM23 won’t be easy. It will be a long process rebuilding the club and where you’re most likely required to put faith in the yearly youth intake to build a competitive squad.
Challenge: We’re now entering 15 years since the club participated in the Premier League, and the challenge must be for you to get the club back to the top division within the next 10 years and remain there for a longer period than the 6 seasons between 1996 and 2002 where the club featured legendary players like Fabrizio Ravanelli, Paulo Wanchope, Rory Delap and Dean Sturridge!
L.R. Vicenza (Serie C)
Football fans from the Italian Veneto region must have been proud when two of the most reputed clubs in the district, Venezia and Vicenza, got promoted before the 2021-2022 season. Let’s move one year forward, and their stay in Serie A and Serie B came quickly to an end after just a season. While Venezia have been a favorite amongst armchair managers in FM22, L.R. Vicenza could be a great FM23 save idea due to its tough challenge to ‘get the club back to where they belong’!
Lanerossi Vizenza was founded in 1902 and is currently the oldest football club in Veneto. Playing in their traditional white and red striped kits, they have spent the last ten years moving up and down between Serie B and Serie C. We have to go back to 2000/01 when they last appeared in Serie A under the name of Vicenza Calcio.
After Bela Guttmann led the club to promotion to Serie A ahead of 1955/56 season, the club spent 20 years in the Italian top division before their decline. Nicknamed Nobile Provinciale for their ability to put up a fight against more established football clubs, Vicenza had to await further 20 years before winning their biggest trophy to date; the Coppa Italy. By winning the 1996-97 Coppa Italy, the club wrote themselves into the history books winning the 50th edition of one of the most honorable tournaments in the world.
Source. Unknown author. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
The following season, the club reached the semifinals of the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup – beaten 2-3 by Chelsea, who eventually could lift the trophy after a goal from Gianfranco Zola in the final against Stuttgart.
DID YOU KNOW?!
Ballon d’Or winner (1994) and FIFA player of the year 1993, Roberto Baggio, is one of the biggest stars coming through the club. By receiving his professional debut at the age of 16 for Vicenza in Serie C before scoring his first professional goal the following year.
1.FC Kaiserslautern (2.Bundesliga)
Since getting relegated from the Bundesliga in 2011/12, it’s been a steep decline for the German Red devils (Die roten Teufel ). After their 15th place in 3.Liga 2020-2021, the fans of 1.FC Kaiserslautern could finally celebrate the promotion to 2.Bundesliga last month!
The traditional German club appointed Dirk Schuster under a month ago, and with ambitious investors (Pacific Media Group) and a huge fan-base, the club aims to get back to the German top division within a few years. Selected as one of the best restore the glory saves for Football Manager by myself prior to FM22 release, the challenge remains for FM23.
As one of the founding members of the Bundesliga, four Bundesliga championships and managed to lift the DFB-pokal on two occassions, Kaiserslautern ranks in the 10th place of the most successful football clubs in Germany – behind Schalke 04 who eventually managed to get promoted to Bundesliga 2022-23 or 1.FC Nürnberg, who finds themselves in 2.Bundesliga as well. Their last trophy came in 1997/98 when they became Bundesliga Champions.
Playing at Fritz-Walter-Stadion, which can host nearly 50,000 spectators, the club should have the financial income and great training facilities to reach greater things. The club is not known for producing lots of players for the German national team, something that might spark motivation to try to turn the club into a club well-known for producing home-grown talents in Football Manager. You can use RB Salzburg and Ajax as great examples when embarking on your next German affair.
CF Intercity (Primera Division RFEF)
One FM23 save idea out of the ordinary, but quite interesting team to manage for Football Manager 2023 could be CF Intercity. The Spanish club based in Sant Joan d’Alacant on the Valencian Community was founded in 2017, only five years ago, and have made a rapid rise from the sixth tier (regional divisions) to the third tier of the Spanish football pyramid. Actually, they’ve managed back to back promotions three years in the row!
The difference between FC Intercity’s stadium capacity (2000) and Elche, who is the biggest club in the region playing on the Estadio Manuel Martínez Valero, FC Intercity ground capacity is 2000 spectators.
Managing FC Intercity on FM23, could be as tough challenge as managing F.C. Andorra, which was promoted to Segunda Division before 2022-23 season. With a stadium capacity of 2000 spectators compared to the biggest club in the region, Elche’s stadium capacity of 33000+ spectators, you might need to spend years developing the club’s stature. But aided by their Underwriter rich benefactor, the club’s finances and innovative Directors will help the club to improve the club’s finances if needed, but eventually expects return.
As a sugar daddy club in FM23, FC Intercity could be a great adventure where you can shape the club into your own liking!
Nancy Lorraine (Championnat National)
For the first time in the club’s history, Nancy Lorraine will have to take the hard route down to the third tier in the French league system. It came as a major surprise to see the traditional club being relegated from Ligue 2 to Championnat National.
The French club founded in 1910 was in January 2021 acquired by a Chinese-American consortium which also has ownership interests in Barnsley (England), FC Thun (Switzerland) and KV Oostende (Belgium). Whether the club has lost its soul when a business man with no feelings into the club enters or the many managers changes in the last four three years, is a subject of debate.
Regardless, the club has a proud history to look back on. Even though they have never won Ligue 1, the club won the Coupe de France in 1977/78 and Coupe de la Ligue 2005/06. What they are most famous for is their ability to produce talents. As a stepping-stone club for both managers and players, Nancy could be an ideal club for a youth development save.
The club can pride itself for being the first club Arsene Wenger managed in his professional career, despite the tenure wasn’t highly successful. They also produced Michel Platini who scored 98 goals in 191 appearances for the first team as well as 41 goals in 72 appearances for the French National team. We all know how the rest of their career panned out.
For FM23, the challenge of managing Nancy could be an easy one as promotion back to Ligue 2 should be doable immediately. Or, it all depends whether they manage to maintain the quality of their squad over the summer, or key players will leave. Currently, the talented Warren Bondo has left on a free but with €4.5Million in wages per year, Abdelhamid El Katouri, Saliou Ciss and a few other key players might leave as the club can’t afford to pay for them with less revenues and income from the third tier. Perhaps, it won’t even be of their personal interest to follow the club down a level.
Admira Wacker Mödling (Hpybet 2.Liga)
Turn back the time a little under 100 years and FC Admira Wacker Mödling, or Admira Vienna whichwas their name at the time, literally dominating the Austrian top division. Between 1926 and 1939, the Austrian club had won seven of their eight Austrian Championships. Throughout that period, they also won three out of five Austrian Cups.
Since then, the club now known as Admira Wacker Mödling or Flyeralarm Admira due to sponsorship agreements, as the club merged with SC Wacker Vienna and VfB Mödling, have made its way from regionalliga in 2008 to Bundesliga. But, under the leadership of former Austrian international player Andreas Herzog, the club got relegated to the 2.Liga, and eventually got sacked.
We don’t need to go back any longer than five years since Admira participated in the UEFA Europa League where they went out in the second qualification round to CSKA Sofia. Swapping out Austria Wien and RB Salzburg with Liefering and the young Violets must really hurt the clubs pride.
If the club manages to keep some of their best players ahead of the 2022-2023 season, it might only be a short sting in the second tier. Right now, it seems very unlikely with a number of players set to leave.
Managing Admira Wacker in FM23, will be your chance to rebuild the club and its squad to your liking. With the highly-talented centre forward, 18-year old Filip Ristanic on your side, the two of you could make history!
That wraps up my suggestions on teams to manage on Football Manager 2023, or for a final FM22 save by downloading a promotion and relegation league update. I will return with more Football Manager 2023 save ideas and recommendations of teams to manage forFM23 in the lead-up to its release.
Let us know in the comments, or via Twitter, which teams you would like to manage for FM23 and which save ideas you can recommend for other armchair managers in the FM community.
