There are hundreds of different scenarios you can throw yourself into to start a new Football Manager 2024 career. You could just go with your favorite team of course, but if you are looking for other suggestions, here are our five best teams to manage.
Any list like this is inherently subjective, but there’s a good chance your curiosity will be tickled by the various scenarios at hand. Whether it’s a challenge or a power fantasy that you’re after, FM24 can provide the goods, and we believe the managerial variety at hand shines the brightest with our top five teams to manage in Football Manager 2024. We’ve got historical soccer giants in need of a savior, minnows in need of a miracle maker, and a straight-up easy-mode suggestion for whenever you get tired of the grind. You can choose your own adventure in FM24, and here are our top choices.
Top five teams to manage in Football Manager 2024
Manchester United
Modern-day Manchester United creates a very unorthodox managerial challenge. While United are still among the most massive clubs in the world, the team are in absolute shambles on a day-to-day operational basis and has been for a long time. Taking them on in Football Manager 2024 will present a job like no other. The resources will be there for you from day one, but so will a myriad of squad building and personnel issues across the board.
With an emerging Arsenal, a very well-run Liverpool, and an all-time great Manchester City being your immediate competition for Champions League spots, not getting fired from this demanding job will be more of a task than Manchester United’s status might suggest.
Luton Town
Luton Town presents a very different Premier League challenge. Luton are a minnow even compared to a team like Brentford, let alone the likes of Manchester United. Taking charge at Kenilworth Road will spit you into a fierce battle for survival with the odds firmly stacked against you.
I’m looking at the Luton Town job in FM24 as an abridged version of taking a non-league team to the Champions League. Yes, you get to start in the Premier League straight away, but you’re stripped of the opportunity to work with a squad you have built yourself, which arguably makes the task more difficult. If you’re up for a challenge and would rather skip the decade or so of climbing divisions, managing Luton is tailor-made for such occasions.
Bayer Leverkusen
Different leagues present different obstacles. In the Bundesliga, the major obstacle has a two-word name: Bayern Munchen. No other top European league has been dominated by a single club as much as the German top tier. Borussia Dortmund came agonizingly close to ending Bayern’s decade-long rule atop the Bundesliga last season, but there’s another way to go about dethroning the German champions.
Bayer Leverkusen are an exciting team this season and for a good reason. They have a squad balanced between capable veterans, supremely talented youngsters, and players who are in the prime of their careers. It’s the perfect environment for you to jump in and become the first Bundesliga winner not named Bayern since 2012. You’ll get bonus satisfactory points for denying Harry Kane his first career trophy.
Ajax Amsterdam
Ajax are the most successful European club outside of England, Spain, Italy, and Germany. They’re also one of the few remaining teams today who achieve international success primarily through recruiting and developing their own players. This is why seeing the Amsterdam colossus struggle mightily and fighting for relegation this season is just plain depressing.
This isn’t a case of financial struggles bringing down a legendary club. You won’t be burdened with a desperate fight against point deductions and the like. Ajax are simply not performing on the pitch in real life, which makes the soccer purist in me want to make amends through any means I have at my disposal, i.e. by taking Ajax to Champions League glory in FM24. If you are anything like that too, taking over Ajax and bringing the glory days back to Amsterdam will be a fulfilling managerial journey.
Real Madrid
Fixing messes, saving teams from near-certain relegation, and challenging the status quo are all interesting challenges, but not everything needs to be a challenge all of the time. Sometimes, you just want to lay back and watch as your team crushes every opponent match after match. Football Manager 2024 presents that sort of experience in the form of Real Madrid.
Managing the most successful club in the history of European soccer is FM24’s version of easy mode. The squad you’ll be working with is world-class from top to bottom, with your reserves probably being good enough to finish top half in La Liga. This being Real Madrid, you won’t be short on funding either. In brief, you’ll get everything a manager can ever want at Santiago Bernabeu. The only thing that’s demanded of you is to win.
Honorable mentions
Honorable mentions go out to a couple of historic French teams who have found themselves in dire straits recently. Bordeaux and Saint-Etienne are currently residing in the second tier of French soccer due to crippling financial issues. Bordeaux’s case is particularly disheartening as the six-time champions were one failed appeal away from being administratively relegated to the third division.
Embracing the challenge of managing great clubs that have suffered relegation and are going through financial woes is a Football Manager staple. If you’re after such an experience, both Bordeaux and Saint-Etienne fit that billing perfectly, plus you get the added bonus of eventually challenging Paris Saint-Germain for being the best team in France.
Football Manager 2024 presents way too many different options to properly cover in a top 50 list, let alone a top five, but we had to draw the line somewhere. Any of the five suggested teams to manage, plus our honorable mention scenario, brings along their own benefits, limitations, and challenges that should engage your inner manager to the fullest. Except for Real Madrid—they’re for when you just want to have fun and not think about it too much.
