Playing Football Manager 2006 one last time.

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nonte
19 years ago
1 week ago
3
12 Jun 2026 07:13:50

As soon as world cup football comes, I get the urge to play my favourite Football Manager game, particularly the FM2006 version. So a couple of weeks ago I fired up FM again in my old laptop, loaded all english and french leagues and started unemployed. Within days Bury offered me a job and I started with a relegation battler team in League 2.

After nearly eight years, in my FM06 save, my career with Bury has finally come to an end, and I honestly think it’s the most emotional save I’ve ever had.

I took over Bury in the League 2 and somehow dragged them all the way to the Premier League. We lived almost entirely on free transfers, bargain signings and hope. Every pound mattered. Every contract mattered. Every injury felt like a disaster. A few players that helped us on our journey to championship were - Stephen Hunt, Anthony Silva, Giovanni Scorza, Arthur Gomez, Muirhead, Digard and a lot of other squad players.

Then came Championship and so came some decent money and reputation. We finally got to sign a few good players on free transfers including Rosina, Biglia, Davies among others.

Somehow we survived.

Then we started thriving.

Then came the unexpected promotion to PRM in only our second season. Huntelaar arrived on a free and became a golden boot winner. Gago came for free and started dominating mid-field. Rosina turned into one of the best players in England and eventually won Premiership Player of the Year. Biglia was our midfield genius when fit, although he seemed to spend half his career in the treatment room. A young prospect from League 2 times, Brunner started out as a centre-back before unexpectedly becoming the heartbeat of our midfield. Stephen Hunt was one of those players who stayed with us through the journey and became impossible not to love.

The weirdest part is that despite reaching the Premier League and establishing ourselves, things slowly started falling apart. We finished 13th the first season, then 12th, and when things looked bright at the start of the third season after being appointed as England manager as well, suddenly we were fighting relegation. I changed almost nothing tactically. We even signed a few decent players. Yet the team just stopped performing.

Rosina’s ratings collapsed.

The squad became unhappy.

Biglia kept getting injured.

And somehow an academy product teenager named Tony Simpson labelled as next Lampard emerged from nowhere and started carrying the club.

Then disaster struck. My save file became corrupted. I had to go back to an earlier save. This time the relegation battle went better we defeated Newcastle 3:1 away to reach 15th position and things started looking better. I went on holiday for next match but when I came back saw Bury had finally sacked me.

A few weeks later Arsenal offered me a job.

The funniest part?

As soon as I left, the new Bury manager put Rosina, D'Alessandro and Huntelaar straight into the reserves, switched to a bizarre 5-3-2 formation and immediately dropped into 19th place.

So now I’m managing Arsenal and England. On paper it’s a dream job. I should be chasing the Champions League and the 2014 World Cup.

But honestly?

Arsenal feels like work.

Bury felt like home.

I care more about whether Tony Simpson becomes an England international than whether Arsenal win another league title.

Maybe that’s the beauty of Football Manager. The trophies are nice, but years later it’s the stories you remember.

And I’ll probably remember Rosina, Hunt, Huntelaar, Biglia and Tony Simpson long after I remember any trophy I win with Arsenal.

 

P.S. : By the way, if you are still playing FM06 and want the training schedule which no doubt helped me get the maximum out of average players, feel free to ask in comments.

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