17 Nov 2019 Football Manager 2020 Teams to manage: 25 best challenges to tackle in FM20
Football Manager 2020 teams to manage – Finding the best side to manage can be a long and arduous process, especially when you’re a few games in and fancy a new challenge.
That’s why we’ve put together this guide to simplify that process for you, bringing you a comprehensive list of sides to consider managing on FM20. Some teams have £100m to spend, others have no budget at all. Some game saves could last just a few seasons, others could run for 20+ years.
In no particular order, here are Plugsville’s 25 Football Manager 2020 teams to manage.
1 – Brescia
In FM19, you could purchase Sandro Tonali for as little as £5m, Fast forward a year, and Brescia’s chairman, Massimo Celino, said he wouldn’t even consider a bid of £250m. So the question becomes, do you cash in on the young starlet likened to Andrea Pirlo or keep him for as long as you can to increase his transfer value? Either way, it seems inevitable that Tonali will leave Lombardy, the challenge here is how you navigate that process.
Brescia are tipped for immediate relegation after eight seasons outside of Serie A and only have a shoestring budget, but all hope is not lost. Their front-line consists of Alfredo Donnarumma, brother of AC Milan goalkeeper Gianluigi, who bagged 25 goals league goals last year, while Mario Balotelli will be hungry to shine for his hometown side.
Transfer budget – £3.4m
Wage budget – £4k/week
2 – Salford
The increasingly-popular Greater Manchester side reached the Football League for the first time in their history last season, but mounting a challenge towards the Premier League is an entirely different kettle of fish.
Despite the 2019/20 season representing Salford’s first in League Two, FM20 predicts the club will finish eighth. What that means for you is, your fans will expect a lot but you may not have the funds or personnel to be able to deliver, all of which makes for an enthralling ride. So, do you fancy managing a side owned by Ryan Giggs, Gary Neville, Phil Neville, Paul Scholes, Nicky Butt and David Beckham?
Transfer budget – £100k
Wage budget – £5k/week
3 – Inter Miami
Making their debut in the MLS Eastern Conference in 2020, David Beckham’s Inter Miami side is as exciting as any team to take charge of on FM20. That is because you will literally be building the club’s history up from scratch.
A budget in excess of £15m is generous for an MLS side. But then again, the Miami-based franchise begins the game with no actual players on their books, meaning you will have to sign an entire side and build this team from the ground up into a powerhouse.
Transfer budget – £15m
Wage budget – £310k/week
4 – Leicester
Brendan Rodgers’ Foxes are flying and look a credible challenger to gatecrash the Premier League’s top four in 2019-20. With a core of Ben Chilwell, James Maddison, Youri Tielemans and Caglar Soyuncu to go alongside more experienced faces like Jamie Vardy, Ricardo Pereira, Kasper Schmeichel and Wilfred Ndidi, Leicester’s squad is no joke.
Although, if you can’t offer Champions League football, keeping that group of players together will not be straight-forward. With the Premier League’s joint-fifth highest transfer budget on FM2020, you’re well-positioned to build a dominant force within English football for many years to come.
Transfer budget – £30m
Wage budget – £71k/week
5 – Atletico Madrid
Diego Simeone’s side lost three cornerstone players in Antoinne Griezmann, Lucas Hernandez and Rodri this past summer. The response to those departures was a spending spree that exceeded £200m, headlined by the acquisition of Portuguese wonderkid Joao Felix.
With Barcelona not as dominant as the side that won multiple trebles earlier on in the decade and Real Madrid failing to hit the same dominant heights under the guidance of Cristiano Ronaldo, the La Liga crown is there for the taking. Finishing runners up the last two years in a row suggests Atletico stand on the verge of another unprecedented victory but need someone to help them reach the next level.
Transfer budget – £1.8m
Wage budget – £21k/week
6 – PSV
Ajax appears to be head and shoulders above every other side in the Eredivisie. Financially, that is most certainly true, as Erik ten Hag’s side is equipped with a whopping £64m transfer kitty. Eindhoven has a shade under £13m, so not only are you up against a clearly superior side, but last season’s Champions League semi-finalists are also far more equipped to get even better than your PSV side.
Building a team around five-star rated youngsters Steven Bergwijn and Mohamed Ihatteran will be paramount to any success you may have, because Ajax’s dominance in Holland is clear for all to see, making the challenge of managing PSV that bit more enticing.
Transfer budget – £12.9m
Wage budget – £1k/week
7 – Real Mallorca
Building a side capable of avoiding demotion to the Segunda Division will be tough with a budget of less than £1m, putting more emphasis on your tactics, training methods and ability to recruit well for less.
Aiding you on that mission are a few useful loanees. The first is Takefusa Kubo. Dubbed ‘the Japanese Messi’, he famously snubbed Barcelona to sign with close rivals Real Madrid and begins the season on loan at Mallorca brimming with potential. Joining Kubo is Chelsea defender Baba Rahman and promising Watford striker Juan Hernandez.
Transfer budget – £861k
Wage budget – £15k/week
8 – Boca Juniors
Boca finished third in 2018/19 having won two consecutive titles prior. Two wonderkids from much older versions of FM, Eduardo Salvio and Mauro Zarate, join two legends in Daniele de Rossi and Carlos Tevez to form a nostalgic spine that look well primed to do damage in 2019/20.
Losing the Copa Libertadores final in 2018 to bitter rivals River Plate is a blow but a passionate fan base and lofty expectations make this an ideal Football Manager 2020 team to manage. You may never get the opportunity to face River in the final of South America’s Champions League equivalent again. But winning the both the Copa Libertadores and the Argentine Premier Division will help appease fans after finishing third last time around.
Transfer budget – £6.2m
Wage budget – £0k/week
9 – Dalian Yifang
DL Yifang are not expected to contend for the Chinese Super League title this season but their recent acquisitions would suggest the club thinks otherwise. Offering Rafa Benitez a contract worth a reported £12m/year in real life suggests the club want to do a lot more than simply finish sixth, as they are predicted to do in FM20.
Solomon Rondon, Marek Hamsik and Yannick Carrasco are the club’s stand-out foreign players, but the league’s rule may prevent you from free-loading on expensive talent as you might like, as all Chinese clubs have to pay a 100% tax levy on any transfer worth more than £5.15m.
Transfer budget – £10m
Wage budget – £0k/week
10 – Manchester United
Much like Leicester and Arsenal, United are trying to gatecrash last year’s top-four. But unlike the Foxes and Gunners, the Red Devils have more than double the combined budget of both those sides, giving them a clear financial edge.
After spending north of £100m on two defensive recruits in summer, Man United’s need for another defender may be debatable but the urgency to sign another forward or creative spark can’t be understated. Still, with Paul Pogba, Harry Maguire, Marcus Rashford, David De Gea and Anthony Martial under contract, United’s squad is not as bad as they make out to be in real life.
Transfer budget – £2m
Wage budget – £13k/week
11 – Paris FC
PSG’s inter-state rivals barely qualify for the title of ‘rival’, such is the disparity between the two clubs. The second-tier French outfit are not able to rely on huge riches from rich owners but instead must rely on smart transfer business and internal development to rise through the ranks.
Paris FC are predicted to finish mid-table in Ligue 2, so, can you take an afterthought in French football and become the best team in Paris, and then later, the world?
Transfer budget – £10m
Wage budget – £21k/week
12 – Inter
At the turn of the decade, Inter were the most dominant side in world football, winning an unprecedented treble under Jose Mourinho in 2010. Since then, it’s been a somewhat forgettable period in Nerrazurri history. 2019-20 could be the season that all changes.
Inter lost Mauro Icardi in summer but added Romelu Lukaku and Alexis Sanchez to join the highly-rated prospect that is Lautaro Martinez in a fearsome front-three. Defensively, Milan Skriniar, Stefan de Vrij and Samir Handanovic offer stability, but adding another full-back and winger would help to fill a few gaps in an otherwise strong side.
Transfer budget – £30m
Wage budget – £101k/week
13 – Bolton
The former mid-table Premier League regulars begin the 2019/20 season with a -12 point deduction and a threadbare squad. That makes the Trotters one of the most difficult Football Manager 2020 teams to manage.
In the short-term, your focus will be avoiding relegation. But taking a club from rock-bottom to a Champions League final has a certain appeal to it and Bolton fit that mould and then some.
Transfer budget – £0
Wage budget – £3k/week
14 – Rangers
Celtic have won the last eight Scottish Premiership titles, as well as a ‘treble treble’, winning all three domestic cups for the past three years. Much like Serie A and the Bundesliga, there has been one undisputed leader in Scottish football for a good few years now. Something has to give.
Lead by Jermain Defoe and Alfredo Morelos up top, the Gers could make a case for owning the best strike force in the league, while they will also play Europa League in 2019-20. Is this the year Celtic’s dominance finally ends?
Transfer budget – £1.8m
Wage budget – £16k/week
15 – Sporting Lisbon
The last time Sporting won the Primeira Liga was 2002. Since then, Porto and Benfica have split 17 titles between them, with Benfica winning five of the last six on offer. Sporting finished third the past three seasons in a row but haven’t been able to end a title drought that now spans 17 years.
Despite their starting budget of just £1.7m, the club has Bruno Fernandes on their books, which essentially means the club won’t just have over a million to spend. The highly-coveted Portuguese midfielder begins FM20 with a transfer value of £37m and has no shortage of suitors. Do you fancy tackling the challenge of dethroning two of Portugal’s biggest sides with a small budget and one hugely expensive transfer asset?
Transfer budget – £1.7m
Wage budget – £22k/week
16 – Arsenal
In an era where clubs spend hundreds of millions to secure Champions League football, Arsenal’s starting budget of just £10m on FM20 is somewhat laughable.
Despite the absence of a huge transfer budget, Pierre-Emerick Aubaeyang and Nicolas Pepe can offer electric returns up top, with Gabriel Martinelli and Reiss Nelson providing promise for the future. Of all Football Manager 2020 Premier League top six sides, Arsenal are the toughest challenge, with arguably the worst squad and smallest starting transfer budget of any side.
Transfer budget – £10m
Wage budget – £351k/week
17 – CSKA Moscow
After winning three league titles in four seasons between 2012-2016, CSKA has been forced to sit back and watch as two of their Moscow rivals, Lokomotiv and Spartak hoist a title, with Zenit ending the 2018/19 season as champions.
21-year-old Russian striker Fedor Chalov is the club’s best young talent while Mario Fernandes is an ever-reliable presence at right-back, but CSKA mostly has an ageing squad and limited funds to turn things around. Sound appealing?
Transfer budget – £4.3m
Wage budget – £34k/week
18 – Fenerbahce
With no league title in five seasons, Fener find themselves entrenched in being good but not quite good enough, which makes them an interesting prospect on FM20.
Unlike yesteryear, Fenerbahce’s squad in 2019-20 is not what it once was and both Galatasaray and Besiktas have a strong ensemble of talent and the club don’t have a huge transfer budget. Helping the fallen Turkish giants climb back atop of the pile will, therefore, rely on you being able to identify cheap talent.
Transfer budget – £8.63m
Wage budget – £0k/week
19 – Fulham
The Championship is one of the most competitive leagues of any in world football, so being able to inherit a squad with players who have proven their worth at this level goes a long way.
That’s the position Fulham find themselves in, who managed to keep most of their squad together following relegation in 2019/20. Alexsandar Mitrovic, Tom Cairney and Alfie Mawson form the bedrock of the side, while loanees Ivan Cavaliero, Anthony Knockaert and Harry Arter beef up an already stocked squad hungry to secure an immediate return to the Premier League.
Transfer budget – £5m
Wage budget – £0k/week
20 – Anderlecht
Vincent Kompany left Man City to become player-manager at his hometown side Anderlecht, only to relinquish his managerial duties after the club made their worst start a season in 21 years.
Nacer Chadli, Samir Nasri and former Leeds striker Kemar Roofe, if nothing else, offer a sense of familiarity as you bid to steer Anderlecht back to the upper echelons of Belgian football. Getting the side back into Europe will be your first task and it won’t be a stroll in the park, as club legend Kompany found out after just four games.
Transfer budget – £860k
Wage budget – £22k/week
21 – Lyon
Of all Ligue 1 teams, Lyon might be the best placed to take PSG’s title in 2019/20. Their attacking talent is among the most promising in Europe, with Memphis Depay, Moussa Dembele and Houssem Aouar leading a deadly three-pronged attack.
OL’s task of out-duelling the Parisian giants won’t be straight forward. Beyond their starting line-up, the squad isn’t the deepest, which means that competing on multiple fronts across an entire season may prove tough without new signings. Lyon are one of the more complicated Football Manager 2020 teams to manage, as they occupy a grey space between being good and great.
Transfer budget – £25.8m
Wage budget – £43k/week
22 – Derby
Mason Mount and Fikayo Tomori are now England internationals and Champions League regulars, while Harry Wilson now starts each week for Bournemouth in the Premier League. All three shone for Derby last year, so how can the East Midlands outfit possibly expect to replicate that production and make another promotion push?
That is the path that lies ahead should you become manager of the Rams, who must replace three key loanees from last season on a shoestring budget while meeting the demands of fans who expect Derby to eventually reach English football’s top tier. Working in your favour is the club’s somewhat hefty transfer budget for a Championship side, which at the very least, gives you enough ammunition to make one or two impact signings.
Transfer budget – £10m
Wage budget – £21k/week
23 – Borussia Monchengladbach
The departure of Thorgan Hazard to Borussia Dortmund will sting but Gladbach should have enough about them to maintain another push to secure Europa League football in year one, even if the media expect them to finish 11th.
Borussia Monchengladbach are not the only Bundesliga side well-positioned to snag one a coveted Champions League place, with Bayer Leverkusen, RB Leipzig, Eintracht Frankfurt, Schalke and Wolfsburg providing stern competition. With one of the smaller transfer budgets, Gladbach are almost like the worst of the best teams fighting for European football in the Bundesliga in FM20.
Transfer budget – £6.8m
Wage budget – £38k/week
24 – RB Salzburg
Since Red Bull purchased the club in 2005, RB Salzburg has won 10 out of a possible 15 league titles, including the last six on offer. Sadio Mane’s former side should face no problem making it seven titles on the spin. It’s in Europe where you can truly make your mark.
There is also the not-so-small issue of the future of Erling Haaland, a 19-year-old phenomenon who became just the fourth player alongside Diego Costa, Alessandro Del Piero and Ze Carlos in score in their first four Champions League games. Haaland currently has seven in four in Europe in real life and looks destined for a move elsewhere. Can you put together a team capable of challenging in Europe with the proceeds of his inevitable sale?
Transfer budget – £17m
Wage budget – £0k/week
25 – Slough
The final entry in this list of Football Manager 2020 teams to manage is a team dredged up for the lowest tier of English football available on FM20.
With a stadium capacity of just 2000, Slough, famed for its prominence in Ali G, is one of the smallest teams in the Vanarama Conference South and are also tipped to be locked in a relegation battle. If you’re looking for a 20+ season game save, look no further.
Transfer budget – £0m
Wage budget – £0k/week