Welcome to a brand new series on Hypo FM!
The beauty of Football Manager is that you can run several years' worth of matches in no time at all, and this allows us to explore the hypothetical scenarios that lend this site its name. Our main series looks at a world where players represent the country they play their football in, and we also ran a cup with players representing their city of birth (effectively, two ends of a spectrum).
Our new series is called the Manager League. Simply put, we give 21 managers the chance to manage 21 teams: the 20 Premier League teams plus England. Each season there are points on offer for their performance, and we see which manager does the best once they've all had a go with each team.
Managers
For this we're going to use the manager who spent the most time with each team last season:
The beauty of Football Manager is that you can run several years' worth of matches in no time at all, and this allows us to explore the hypothetical scenarios that lend this site its name. Our main series looks at a world where players represent the country they play their football in, and we also ran a cup with players representing their city of birth (effectively, two ends of a spectrum).
Our new series is called the Manager League. Simply put, we give 21 managers the chance to manage 21 teams: the 20 Premier League teams plus England. Each season there are points on offer for their performance, and we see which manager does the best once they've all had a go with each team.
Managers
For this we're going to use the manager who spent the most time with each team last season:
Format
21 teams, 21 managers: this means we will run 21 seasons. In each season one manager will be managing their real-life team, the rest will be with someone new. This is the schedule:
21 teams, 21 managers: this means we will run 21 seasons. In each season one manager will be managing their real-life team, the rest will be with someone new. This is the schedule:
For each season, each manager will be given a points score based on their performance in the season. Feel free to ignore this bit, and trust that it's fair... but if you want to know the details, the points system is as follows:
For managers of club teams:
For England managers:
Additionally, there is a 100pt bonus for the best performance with each team over the entire series.
Obviously, you would expect the bigger teams to accumulate more points - but the whole point is that everyone will have a chance with the big teams.
The best way to demonstrate this is with a couple of...
Examples
We'll use the results of the real 2022/23 Premier League season to show how the points system works. We'll use a few managers as examples.
Thomas Tuchel
First of, a manager who didn't see much of the season. Naturally, a manager can only accrue points for matches they actually managed. At the point Tuchel was sacked Chelsea had played six games: W3D1L2. Those 10 league points translates to 100 manager league points (ML points).
FM predicts Chelsea to finish 5th, and when Tuchel was sacked they were in 6th, so he scores -40pts for league position.
He does get the 10pt bonus for being in the top 6. Chelsea hadn't progressed in any cup competitions, nor had they won any monthly prizes so there are no bonuses there, either.
Therefore, Tuchel's score is just 100 - 40 +10 = 50pts. Not great!
Erik ten Hag
By contrast, let's go with a manager who did see out the season and had a variety of cup successes.
Manchester United earned 75 points, so ten Hag gets 750pts. They finished in 3rd, three places higher than predicted so they get a further 120pts, plus a bonus of 25pts for a top 4 finish.
In cup competitions they won the league cup (150pts), were runners-up in the FA Cup (150pts) and quarter finalists in the Europa League (75pts).
When it comes to individual awards, ten Hag himself won two manager of the month awards (10pts). Additionally, Marcus Rashford won two player of the month awards (2pts) and David de Gea won the Golden Glove (5pts).
In total, that gives ten Hag an excellent 1287pts. I'm not working it out but I think that would be second-best as ten Hag's cup successes would see him overtake Mikel Arteta. Pep Guardiola would obviously finish top after securing a treble.
Gareth Southgate
Finally, let's finish with the England boss.
In Qatar, England lost in the quarter final, so Southgate scores 200pts for his performance there. They finished bottom of their Nations League group, so there's nothing for that, but they did win all their qualifying matches so he gets a further 120pts.
In terms of awards no England player won a World Cup award, but for argument's sake I'm using the Sky Sports team of the tournament which includes Harry Maguire, so there's 1pt for Southgate there.
In total, Southgate scored 321pts.
Clearly, it's easier to score points for the big teams that are likely to make the business end of tournaments, so it's crucial that every manager makes the most of their time with the big teams.
So, join us next time as we go through the first season!
For managers of club teams:
- 10pts for each point earned in the league
- 40pts for each position finished above the season expectations, -40pts for each position finished below
- League bonus points: relegated (-50pts), top 6 (10pts), top 4 (25pts), winner (100pts)
- FA Cup points: 3rd round (0pts), 4th round (25pts), 5th round (50pts), quarter final (75pts), semi final (100pts), final (150pts), winner (250pts)
- League Cup points: 2nd/3rd round (0pts), 4th round (25pts), quarter final (50pts), semi final (75pts), final (100pts), winner (150pts)
- Champions League points: group stage (0pts), last 16 (100pts), quarter final (150pts), semi final (200pts), final (300pts), winner (500pts)
- Europa League points: group stage (0pts), last 32 (25pts), last 16 (50pts), quarter final (75pts), semi final (100pts), final (150pts), winner (250pts)
- Europa Conference League points: group stage (0pts), last 32 (15pts), last 16 (25pts), quarter final (50pts), semi final (75pts), final (100pts), winner (150pts)
- EPL Manager award bonus points: Manager of the Month (5pts per win), Manager of the Year (50pts)
- EPL Player award bonus points: Player of the Month (1pt per win), Player of the Year (20pts), Young Player of the Year (5pts), top league goalscorer (10pts), Golden Glove (5pts)
For England managers:
- World Cup performance: group stage (0pts), second round (100pts), quarter final (200pts), semi final (300pts), final (400pts), winner (600pts)
- Nations League: 4th place (0pts), 3rd place (25pts), 2nd place (50pts), semi final (75pts), final (100pts), winner (150pts)
- European Championship qualifying: 10pts per point earned
- World Cup bonus points: Golden Ball (20pts), Golden Boot (20pts), best young player (10pts), player in dream team (1pt per player)
Additionally, there is a 100pt bonus for the best performance with each team over the entire series.
Obviously, you would expect the bigger teams to accumulate more points - but the whole point is that everyone will have a chance with the big teams.
The best way to demonstrate this is with a couple of...
Examples
We'll use the results of the real 2022/23 Premier League season to show how the points system works. We'll use a few managers as examples.
Thomas Tuchel
First of, a manager who didn't see much of the season. Naturally, a manager can only accrue points for matches they actually managed. At the point Tuchel was sacked Chelsea had played six games: W3D1L2. Those 10 league points translates to 100 manager league points (ML points).
FM predicts Chelsea to finish 5th, and when Tuchel was sacked they were in 6th, so he scores -40pts for league position.
He does get the 10pt bonus for being in the top 6. Chelsea hadn't progressed in any cup competitions, nor had they won any monthly prizes so there are no bonuses there, either.
Therefore, Tuchel's score is just 100 - 40 +10 = 50pts. Not great!
Erik ten Hag
By contrast, let's go with a manager who did see out the season and had a variety of cup successes.
Manchester United earned 75 points, so ten Hag gets 750pts. They finished in 3rd, three places higher than predicted so they get a further 120pts, plus a bonus of 25pts for a top 4 finish.
In cup competitions they won the league cup (150pts), were runners-up in the FA Cup (150pts) and quarter finalists in the Europa League (75pts).
When it comes to individual awards, ten Hag himself won two manager of the month awards (10pts). Additionally, Marcus Rashford won two player of the month awards (2pts) and David de Gea won the Golden Glove (5pts).
In total, that gives ten Hag an excellent 1287pts. I'm not working it out but I think that would be second-best as ten Hag's cup successes would see him overtake Mikel Arteta. Pep Guardiola would obviously finish top after securing a treble.
Gareth Southgate
Finally, let's finish with the England boss.
In Qatar, England lost in the quarter final, so Southgate scores 200pts for his performance there. They finished bottom of their Nations League group, so there's nothing for that, but they did win all their qualifying matches so he gets a further 120pts.
In terms of awards no England player won a World Cup award, but for argument's sake I'm using the Sky Sports team of the tournament which includes Harry Maguire, so there's 1pt for Southgate there.
In total, Southgate scored 321pts.
Clearly, it's easier to score points for the big teams that are likely to make the business end of tournaments, so it's crucial that every manager makes the most of their time with the big teams.
So, join us next time as we go through the first season!