Just start at a big club.

I see posts all the time about people struggling in the Vanarama South or trying to do a journeyman where they start from Sunday League experience and no badges, all because they see people like Zealand do this and they think that’s what Football Manager is. Many of these content creators have played a variant of FM/CM for literal, IRL decades and have decades if not centuries of in-game seasons under their belts. Many new FM players are likely probably lifelong FIFA players who were craving something realistic and made the switch. That’s exactly where I was when I bought FM23 as my introduction to the franchise.

But starting at a big club, IMO, is the easiest and most fun way to actually enjoy the game when you first start playing it. I think too many people start with the grand vision of taking some 3rd division side in a small country to Champions League winners and then get burnt out and don’t enjoy the game because they’re overwhelmed by everything there is to do and it’s harder to have real success when you don’t know what you’re doing.

Starting at a bigger club (at minimum one in the top-5 leagues that really shouldn’t be relegation candidates at the start of the save) affords you the time you want/need over the course of your first few seasons to really learn and master each part of the game at your own pace. You will know the players available at the top flight level from watching football in real life and/or playing FIFA, which makes building your squad over the first few seasons easier. Wonderkid lists are easily found on Google or with in-game searching methods once you’re aware that you can do that.

There are plenty of great content creators out there too who will help you in each specialized area. When the time is right and you want to start a save with your IRL favorite club you can make the switch: only you will know when that right time is. But do yourself a favor and just make the game easier on yourself until then. There is so much to learn, which makes this game wonderful, and it’s always sad to see people not enjoying it because they put the cart before the horse and then get turned off.