First time posting on here in a long long while so please bear with me whilst I get to grips with how it works.

Now international management has been released on FM26 I wanted to try a build a nation save, and what better place to start than in Gibraltar, lets make it is difficult as possible!

Firstly, the club, I decided to start the save at the end of the 25/26 season, and chose to take over the club sitting bottom of the Gibraltar Football League table.

That club was Manchester 62, no idea why it says 6, it's definitely 62.

A shocking season for them, ending on a lowly 8 points with only 2 wins and 7 goals scored. Awful!

The good news is theres only one way this club can go and that's upwards. Now its time for me to take Manchester 62 to the top of the table, then on to European glory.

I have already played through most of the Summer months and have made numerous transfers. We have nothing to spend, so I have brought in numerous players on non-contract deals, mainly younger players who I can try and develop.

This is the current squad:

Quite small on the face of it but we have decent depth in most areas, bar central defence, that is my main transfer aim before the season starts.

I'll discuss key players throughout the opening months.

As you can see from the above screenshot, we have no money and we have very little in terms of facilities, the only way that can improve is to somehow fluke our way into Europe, thats our only real source of income currently. 

it will take time, I have to be patient, but once we start getting that European money in, I can then start building this club up, once the club is built, then I can start looking at the other clubs in the league. The only way to improve those clubs, is to transfer down either our own money or our own players, via loans mainly iniitally. So the first few seasons are going to be tough, a major work in process, but the quicker we win the league, the quicker this save will grow legs!

Now to the National Team, obviously Gibraltar are terrible, they sit 198th in the rankings, again there's only really one way we can go and thats upwards.

This is the current squad.

I have played two friendlies in the Summer months, and overall it went OK.

A narrow 3-2 defeat to Azerbaijan was followed by an amazing 4-0 win away to Malta. Really pleasing!

Best player so far has been Ayoub El Hmidi who has scored three goals in the two games. Maybe some I can look at bringing to Manchester 62 at some point.

I will try and update on a monthly basis, I do player quite quick so updates may come quite regularly, if there isn't much to talk about I may do an update every couple of months.

WORLD CUP 2026

I may not do this all the time, but thought I'd write an update on how the World Cup 2026 went.

GROUP STAGE

Group A to C went pretty much as expected. In Group B Bosnia topped the table which was slightly surprising with Switzerland losing to Canada in the final group match, this meant Canada ipped ahead of them into that second qualifying spot, luckily for Switzerland they snuck into one of the best third place finishers. It's also ice to see Scotland qualify in Group C, they did lose to Brazil in the final match but wins in the other two games were enough.

In Group D to F there were little surprises, maybe the biggest shock was Sweden ending bottom of their group, draws against Japan and Tunisia their downfall. USA also won all three of their matches, one of only three teams to do that.

In Group G to I, Norway beat France in the final Group I match to seal top spot, other than that were little shocks with all the favourites going through.

Finally comes Group J to I and just look at England's group! They lost 3-1 to Croatia before a 2-2 draw against Ghana, they had to win the final game against Panama to have any chance of going through and scraped a 1-0 win, this meant they qualified as one of the best third place finishers. Awful!

SECOND ROUND

And Englands tournament didn't last much longer as they lost 3-1 to Portugal! Tuchel out!!! There were a few shocks in this round, Canada beat Mexico with a last miute winner and Norway lost on penalties to Morocco. The likes of Germany and Brazil scraped through as well! 

LAST 16

We're down to the last 16 and thngs are getting serious. But there were very few shocks overall. The biggest shock came as Croatia beat Spain on penalties, there was also a massive game where Brazil beat France on penalties. Bar that all the big boys are still there.

QUARTER FINAL

We're down to the final eight teams, Five from Europe, two from South America and Ghana the only African team remaining.

All four games were incredibly close, Germany edged past The Netherlands 1-0 with Belgium beating Croatia by the same score. Brazil scraped past Ghana via penalties and Argentina beart Portugal 3-2, Lautaro Martinez with a brace.

SEMI FINAL

Four teams left and we have an all-European and an all-South American semi final. Massive!

In the final semi, Germany edged past Belgium, Gnabry scored after only a minute to give Germany the lead with Doku levelling for Belgium three minutes into the second half. It looked like it may go to extra-time but Kai Havertz scored with nine minutes left to seal a 2-1 win.

Then, in the second semi, Brazil hammered Argentina 3-0, a first minute goal for Raphinha was followed by a Gabriel Jesus goal after twelve minutes. Then, Brazil added a third with a few minutes left on the clock, an own goal by goalie Emi Martinez

THIRD/FOURTH PLACE PLAYOFF

A pointless game in my opinion but it was Belgium who prevailed, goals from Onana and Doku sealing a 2-0 win over Argentina.

FINAL

Its such a shame I can't show the usual end of game review but it won't let me click on it so I have no idea of stats, etc.

Well it was Germany who came through, a 1-0 win, defender Jonathan Tah with the goal after a quarter of an hour, their first World Cup win since 2014

JULY/AUGUST 2026

Its nice to see so many fans flocking to snap up season tickets for the new season!

A massive 25 fans committed enough splash the season ticket cash.

With regard to expectations, we are predicted to end 5th, much higher than last seasons actual finish of last. I have high hopes, the top 4 will get European football in some guise, that's the main goal for the upcoming season.

When it comes to the Gilbratan teams in Europe this season, it didn't go massively well, with all 3 teams knocked out in qualifying.

St Josephs

Last season league Champs lost their opening qiualifying roudn in the Champions League before immeidately being knocked out in the Conference League.

College Europa

The only team to actually win a two-legged tie this year, but they ended up losing in the 2nd qualifying round of the Conference League to Sturm Graz

Lincoln Red Imps

An immediate elimation in the Conference League to a team I've never heard of!

This means, with all 3 teams out, we have gained a massive 1.667 co-efficient points this season, it MAY lift us up a few places in the co-efficient rankings, we shall see when the season ends.

Before the opening results, lets talk transfers. I'd already signed a whole raft of players prior to the opening posts, I then signed another 6 players, all defenders, much needed as after all the players left when their contracts expired meant we only had 2 centre backs and 1 left back!

5 players on free and one player in on loan, who is by far the best signing we've made, fully expected seeing as he's come from the third tier of England

The other really good player we've signed if left back Joshua Lett, after his release by Southampton, he joins Manchester 62.

And now we come to the opening results and so far its gone pretty well.

We opened with a really solid 1-0 win over Glacis United, Luke Boutista with the goal, the midfielder was signed in the early Summer months on a free transfer from Gilbratar Lions

Then, in the second game, we got a fantastic 3-1 away win over Hound Dogs, Lee Chipolina with a brace, another Summer signing, on a free from Magpies, German Garcia with the third goal, one of few players who is still here from last season, a top quality left winger for this level.

Then, in the third game, the wheels came off and we easily beaten 2-0 by Magpies.

I will more than take 6 points from the opening 3 games though, a solid start.

Looking ahead over the next couple of months, we have 7 games, there are some tricky one, especially away to Lincoln Red Imps, but if we can win our 4 home matches I'll be more than happy.

SEPTEMBER 2026

3 games this month and what a month it's been!

It started with a home tie against Lynx and we ran out 3-0 winners, Gracia, Chipolina and Baustista with the goals, the 3 lads I spoke about in the last update.

We then faced Gibraltar Lions and won the match 2-0, I am loving these clean sheets! Chipolina with another goal, we also saw a goal for Winger Kevin Kagua

In the third and final game of the month, we once again kept a clean sheet, another 2-0 win. Striker Kofi Antwi with his first goal of the season and Kagua with a second goal in 2 games,

I've spoken a lot about our goalscorers and forward players but our best player so far has been a defender, Giuliano Hill has been playing at right back and has been stunning. He's played all 6 games and grabbed 4 assists, he also has the highest rating in the squad (7.88).

And those 2 wins puts us into second place, a pint behind Lincoln Red Imps

Now we come to international action. In the previous 2 games, I just relied on my ass man to pick the 26-man squad, this time I have spent time picking my own squad. The pool of players isn't great, we also have a lot of players who don't have a club and very few players who are actually playing. So I tried to pick players with a club and also those that had been playing. 

This is the squad I went with.

I also left out some of the really old players, like 38-year old Liam Walker, its time to blood some of the younger players. like 17-year old left back Julian Pecino, currently plying his trade in the third tier of Spain and 18-year old midfielder Luke Schofield, who is in the u21 side at Huddersfield, 

Our first camp included 3 Nations league games, 2 are in September, which I'll talk about now, the other will come in Octobers update. We are currently in the bottom division of the Nations League (Division D), and are in a 3-team group with Malta and Liechtenstein, Malta a team who beat 4-0 in a friendly over the Summer.

And wow what a start!

It started with a stunning 3-1 win at home to Malta, we did go behind but played really well overall. There was a goal for Striker TJay De Barr and a brace for midfielder Anthony Hernandez

Then it got even better, as we went to Liechtenstein and smashed them 4-0, we were deadly from corners, culminating in a sensational hat-trick for Dorking defender Louis Annesley! There was also a second goal in 2 games for De Barr, he's had a stunning start at Lincoln Red Imps this season with 9 goals in 6 games. 

A great start, lets hope it continues!