These clubs are broke, battered and waiting for someone brave enough to fix them. Here's why each one is worth your next Football Manager 26 save.
Winning the league with Man City is fun for about twenty minutes. Then you reload, scroll past the glamour jobs, and find a club that is genuinely falling apart — and that is where Football Manager actually lives. These ten clubs are in real financial trouble right now. Not simulated difficulty, not a tight budget — actual debt, actual points deductions, actual existential dread. Each one is a story waiting to be written, and all ten are available in FM26 if you have the stomach for it. Grab the best FM26 price first, run your machine through the Laptop Rater, and bookmark the Tactics hub and Wonderkids label — you will be back to both before the first transfer window closes.
Everton (England)
The worst of the storm has passed, but the scars are still fresh. Multiple PSR breaches and back-to-back points deductions between 2023 and 2024 battered Everton's reputation and gutted their transfer ambitions for years. The Friedkin Group's takeover at the end of 2024 cleared the most dangerous short-term debts and stabilised the books, and the move into Hill Dickinson Stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock — a 52,888-seater that cost over £800 million to build — has more than doubled matchday revenue overnight. PSR, once an existential threat, is no longer the sword hanging over the club.
But that does not mean this is a comfortable save. The stadium debt is enormous, the squad has been heavily trimmed to meet financial regulations over several years, and the board now expects you to justify a new era rather than just survive it. You are essentially starting from scratch with a shiny new ground and a fanbase that has been patient long enough. The challenge shifts from pure financial survival to building a squad worthy of the ambitions the stadium represents — and doing it while the commercial revenue, promising as it is, is still ramping up. Check how Everton's FM26 Premier League transfer budget compares to the rest of the division before you start — the gap between what you have and what rivals can spend will define your entire first window.
Your early work is about establishing an identity and protecting the wage curve. Move on any dead weight left from previous regimes, lean into the free agent and loan market from clubs lower in the table, and use the improved matchday pull of the new ground as a genuine selling point to prospects. The new Squad Cost Ratio rules replacing PSR give higher-revenue clubs more freedom to spend, and Everton are on track to benefit — but only if you manage the transition smartly. This is a rebuild with real momentum behind it for the first time in years. Don't waste it.
Standard Liège (Belgium)
Transfer embargoes, player unrest and relentless fan protests at Sclessin became the soundtrack of Standard Liège's recent years. Ownership uncertainty turned a reputation rebuild into a daily grind, with the first team feeling every squeeze while the academy quietly remained an asset nobody was properly using. The cycle of short-term fixes and vanity clauses had to end — and that is exactly what you are walking into.
What makes Standard a genuinely exciting FM26 save is the contradiction at its heart: massive support, a passionate city, and a fanbase that absolutely will not accept mediocrity — but a budget that forces you to be exactly that, at least initially. Your first month should be spent freezing non-essential spending, cancelling any escalator clauses that were signed in better times, and selling one premium asset to generate breathing room. Reinvest only thirty percent of that back into depth, bank the rest.
The scouting map here writes itself. France and the Netherlands are goldmines for the kind of undervalued 22-year-old who can do a job in the Belgian top flight without costing a fortune. The FM26 best bargains shortlist under £10M is a useful starting point for finding that profile — CA 130 or above, priced sensibly, with EU status to avoid registration headaches. Free full backs with stamina and crossing, ball-playing centre backs from the Dutch leagues on modest fees, and U23 wonderkids under £5M from Ligue 1 clubs who want their prospects getting regular minutes are your raw materials. Communicate realistic targets to your squad early, give academy players genuine matchday involvement, and the morale problems that plagued the previous regime will start to fade.
Vitesse (Netherlands)
If you want the most chaotic starting position on this list, Vitesse might be it. Ownership battles, a professional licence revoked by the KNVB in June 2025 and then only restored on appeal in September, a 39-point deduction across one season alone, and a squad hastily assembled from free agents and amateurs after the transfer window had already closed. The club did not even start the 2025-26 Eerste Divisie season on time. In FM26, they carry a 12-point deduction into the campaign before a ball has been kicked, and you are working with whatever showed up at the door.
The football side suffered badly from years of instability. Short-term deals and frantic late-window scrambles became the norm because nobody knew from month to month whether there would even be a club to plan for. Your job is to restore routine: renegotiate the appearance and loyalty add-ons that inflate the wage bill without providing value, get two or three academy players onto the bench immediately, and use short-term loans in wide areas to generate the chance creation your makeshift squad simply cannot produce on its own. The best FM26 free agents to sign is worth bookmarking before you start — a free veteran goalkeeper and a couple of experienced central defenders are the foundation this save is built on.
The GelreDome and the historic Eredivisie footprint are still there. The GelreDome seats over 25,000 and is part of a wider tradition of historic grounds that dwarf the division they are currently hosting — if you like that kind of narrative tension, the guide to lower-league clubs with big stadiums in FM26 covers several clubs in a similar position. Use appearance bonuses instead of higher basic wages to keep the wage curve manageable, target 1.6 points per game with a set-piece edge, and trust that the youth pathway — genuinely clear and time-efficient if you work it properly — will give you something worth building on by season three.
Reading (England)
Points deductions, winding-up petitions, emergency player sales and a long-running ownership nightmare that dragged on long enough to exhaust even the most loyal supporters — Reading have been through it. The frustrating thing is that the bones of a decent club are still there. A realistic stadium size, a decent English loan market on the doorstep, a clear academy identity. They just need someone to stop the bleeding and actually build something.
The first month is all about contract surgery. Terminate every needless escalator clause you can find, sell the one player with genuine market value and attach a meaningful sell-on percentage to that deal, then go loan hunting: a target forward and a mobile six to give you structure without the wage commitment. From there, a set-piece package designed to overperform your expected goals total will buy you points while the squad takes shape. Reading are a textbook case for the kind of methodical, patient approach covered in our guide to the best FM26 clubs for a rebuild — strip the bloat, trust the process, feel the turn after a season or two.
The board promise you want is stable mid-table first, playoffs later. Anything else is unrealistic and will get you sacked before the rebuild has a chance to breathe. Rotate heavily through the winter months to protect legs — Reading squads tend to be thin, and an injury spiral in February has ended more promising saves than any tactical shortcoming. Premier League loans with wage shares under fifty percent are your best friends here, and the Championship transfer budgets in FM26 will show you exactly how far that loan strategy needs to stretch relative to what rivals have available.
FC Sochaux (France)
Administrative relegation and ownership drama dragged Sochaux away from where a club of their history should be playing football. One of the oldest and most storied names in French football, a club that produced World Cup winners and spent decades in the top flight, reduced to fighting for relevance in the lower tiers because the people running the finances could not get out of their own way. The brand took a hit, the wage bill piled up, and the recruitment model lost its direction. What survived, though, was the academy and a rich local talent pool that other clubs at this level simply do not have — Sochaux are featured in the guide to FM26's underrated youth academies for exactly this reason, and it is an asset worth understanding before your first youth intake arrives.
The financial levers here are simpler to pull than most clubs on this list, which means if you move quickly you can establish stability before the season properly kicks in. Cut the squad to 22 senior players immediately, move on the high earners with sell-on clauses, and bring in a dedicated set-piece coach and a defensive coach to work with whatever you have left. Two academy attackers in cup games early on keeps them happy and saves senior minutes for the league grind.
The tactical approach almost picks itself: a low block and counters to pick up points while you build, Ligue 1 loans for quality in the CM and CB positions, and National 1 bargains who fit the fallen giant rebuild profile — aged 20 to 23, cheap fees, resale upside. Cup runs are your financial safety valve here — they generate cashflow without touching the wage bill, and at this level Sochaux are capable of a run that genuinely changes the budget picture.
Bursaspor (Turkey)
League champions in 2010, Champions League group stage the following year. That version of Bursaspor feels impossibly far away now. Debts accumulated, poor decisions compounded, and a club that once shared a group with Manchester United found itself sliding down the Turkish football pyramid, spending time in the fourth division before clawing back up to the TFF 2. Lig. The playing budget vanished long before the squad quality did, and the gap between the two has been causing headaches ever since.
What has not gone anywhere is the fanbase. Bursaspor supporters react fast to momentum — win a few games and the atmosphere inside Timsah Arena is legitimately intimidating. That becomes your most powerful tool in the early months. Release the surplus veterans immediately to get the weekly outgoings down, find a set-piece taker and two dominant centre backs who can be the foundation of everything, and loan a quick inside forward and a ball winner who will give the team an identity without costing full wages. The FM26 free agents database filtered by Balkan and Central European nationalities will serve you well here — that region produces the kind of reliable, experienced mid-table operator who can hold a struggling squad together while the project takes shape.
The pathway to sustainable success runs through smart trading and long-term youth investment. Low-fee buys with sell-on upside, buyback clauses on every outgoing deal you can negotiate, and an early appointment of a Head of Youth with strong development attributes. Check the FM26 best youth academies guide to understand what Bursaspor's setup looks like relative to the rest of the Turkish pyramid — the gap you need to close in infrastructure is as important as the one on the pitch, and knowing it early means you can lobby the board before the budget conversation gets complicated.
Sampdoria (Italy)
The fall keeps finding new floors. After relegation from Serie A in 2023, Sampdoria spent two seasons lurching through Serie B under a succession of managers — four coaches in 2024-25 alone — before scraping past Salernitana in a chaotic relegation playoff to preserve their second-tier status. Owner Joseph Tey and a Singapore-based investment group have pumped over €105 million into the club since the takeover, covering debts, wages and infrastructure, and yet the club recorded a €40.6 million loss and found themselves at the bottom of Serie B again at the start of the 2025-26 season. The money is keeping the lights on. It is not fixing the football.
In FM26, Samp start in Serie B with a fragile squad, unstable morale, and an ownership structure that fans remain deeply sceptical about. The margin for error is tiny. Your job is not glamorous — it is to set hard wage ceilings by position and enforce them, sell one heavy earner to reset the salary scale, and then build around a press-resistant central midfielder and a mobile striker who can hold things up while you organise everything else. Defensive set pieces drilled obsessively will get you points your performances might not deserve in the early weeks. For the undervalued Serie C prospects who can plug gaps on crisis wages, the FM26 best bargains shortlist filtered by Italian market value is your most useful first-window tool.
The long game here is genuinely compelling. Sampdoria have European pedigree, a famous kit, one of Italian football's most passionate fanbases, and a realistic route back to Serie A if you can string together one decent season. They sit alongside several other clubs with similarly grand histories and equally complicated presents in our guide to fallen empires to rebuild in FM26, which is worth reading alongside this one for tactical and recruitment context. Free veterans with high professionalism to set the dressing room tone, undervalued Serie C prospects as long-term investments, and Serie A loans with buy options are your tools. Keep every promise realistic and the squad harmony will hold — break one too many and the whole thing can unravel overnight, as this club has learned more than once.
Málaga CF (Spain)
Legal wrangles, ownership strain, cash shortages and a fanbase that has been asked to keep the faith through years of underperformance. Málaga's fall from Champions League quarter-finalists in 2013 to their current position grinding through the lower tiers of Spanish football is one of the more depressing trajectories in recent European history. The ownership situation has never been properly resolved, and the gap between what La Rosaleda deserves and what it currently hosts on a Saturday afternoon is stark. Málaga features in the guide to fallen giants to rebuild in FM26 for good reason — the stadium, the academy and the location still sell the project to players who might otherwise look elsewhere. Sunshine, sea and a genuine rebuild story — there are worse pitches to make.
The early months are about squeezing value rather than spending it. A thorough staff audit to clear duplication, two leadership signings on free transfers, a creative ten and a sweeper keeper on loan — those are your foundational moves. A narrow mid-block to reduce chances conceded while you are still building, two academy players integrated through cup minutes to keep the pipeline alive and the production costs down.
The longer-term approach is where Málaga starts to get genuinely exciting. Sell-on clauses can drip-feed cash back into the project over years, La Liga loans bring technical quality without the fee commitment, and low-cost South American hidden wonderkids with EU passports have historically been one of Spanish football's best-kept secrets — the guide covers exactly the profile you are looking for. Protect resale value across the board with percentage-of-next-sale clauses wherever you can get them, be patient with the wage curve, and this save rewards you with one of the most emotionally satisfying redemption arcs in FM26.
Sheffield Wednesday (England)
This is the most complete crisis scenario in FM26. Not just financially troubled — actually in administration. Sheffield Wednesday entered October 2025 with six separate EFL transfer embargoes accumulated across the summer, wages unpaid to players and staff four times in five months, and the North Stand at Hillsborough closed by Sheffield City Council due to structural concerns, reducing capacity at a stroke. Owner Dejphon Chansiri, having publicly asked supporters to crowdfund the club's debts two years earlier, ran out of road. Administrators were appointed on 24 October 2025, and the points deduction that followed was brutal: 18 points. Taken before a ball has been kicked in FM26, that means you start the Championship season needing to dig out of a hole most managers never climb back from. If you want to benchmark just how bad the starting finances are, the FM26 Championship transfer budgets page will make grim reading.
The squad situation is almost as bad as the financial one. Multiple departures across a chaotic summer left Wednesday with around 15 senior professionals when the season started, and a transfer embargo running until the end of 2026 means you cannot sign anyone attached to another club — only free agents. That constraint is the defining feature of this save, and it is worth bookmarking the top FM26 free agents to sign before you start, because those are the only players you will be working with in your first window. You are building from nothing, in administration, in the Championship, 18 points behind everyone else before matchday one. The EFL's own statement described their concern about the club's ability to fulfil fixtures. That is the environment you are inheriting.
And yet. Hillsborough is still one of English football's most atmospheric grounds. The fanbase is enormous, passionate and — after everything they have been through — still showing up. The bones of a club with real identity are there underneath the wreckage. Wednesday sit alongside Derby, Leicester and Leeds in the guide to fallen English giants to rebuild in FM26, and of the seven clubs covered there, none offer a steeper initial climb. For a more detailed breakdown of exactly what the game gives you — the squad skeleton, predicted finish and key development prospects — the FM26 relegation saves guide covers Sheffield Wednesday in full. Keeping them in the Championship despite the deduction would be one of the great FM saves. Getting them promoted within five years would be a legend-making achievement. Nobody said this would be easy.
Valencia CF (Spain)
Valencia's decline under Peter Lim is one of the slow-motion disasters of modern European football. When the Singaporean billionaire bought a 70% stake for €100 million in 2014, he was genuinely welcomed — the club was on the brink of administration and he represented stability. Eleven years later, the debts have ballooned to around €340 million, an unfinished second stadium has sat dormant for over a decade like a concrete monument to mismanagement, and the best players have been sold every summer without meaningful reinvestment. Copa del Rey winners in 2019, Champions League regulars not long before that — now scrapping to stay in La Liga while "Lim Go Home" banners are a permanent fixture at Mestalla, and two Spanish nationals were detained in Singapore after displaying one outside Lim's home. It is the kind of context that makes Valencia one of the most compelling entries in any list of fallen European empires to rebuild in FM26.
In March 2025, Lim denied reports he was seeking €400 million to sell his stake and instead appointed his son Kiat as club president — a move that satisfied precisely nobody among the fanbase. Valencia survived another nervous La Liga season, but the cycle of selling, stagnating and nearly going down has become routine. In FM26 you are in the top flight with a threadbare squad, a fanbase that will turn on you fast if results do not improve, and an ownership structure that offers minimal investment and maximum scrutiny. The stadium that was supposed to transform the club financially is still a building site. Check the La Liga transfer budgets in FM26 before you start — Valencia's allocation reflects the austerity of the Lim era and will force you to think creatively from day one.
What makes this save compelling rather than just depressing is the ceiling. Valencia are a club with genuine Champions League pedigree, a famous ground, and an identity rooted in one of Spain's most passionate footballing cities. The talent pipeline through Spanish football is rich, La Liga loans are accessible, and if you can stabilise the wage bill and turn Mestalla into a fortress again the fanbase will respond quickly. Browse the FM26 wonderkids shortlist by PA and price with an eye on Spanish market value — there are players available who fit the Valencia identity and the budget simultaneously. Your first job is to stop the annual fire sale — protect your best assets, bring in cheap high-character signings on sensible contracts, and manufacture enough points to make the next survival fight less desperate than the last one. Valencia also features prominently in our guide to the best FM26 clubs for a rebuild if you want further strategic context before you commit. The club has been waiting a decade for someone to care about it properly. In FM26, that someone is you.
How to play crisis saves without losing your mind
Every one of these clubs will test you differently, but the underlying principles are always the same. Keep the squad tight and versatile so you are never exposed by one injury. Over-index on set pieces because they are the closest thing to free points the game offers — the Tactics hub has downloadable shapes built specifically around dead ball situations that travel well at lower budget levels. Use short contracts with options so you are never locked into a mistake for longer than a season, and keep the Squad Rules Companion open in a tab — registration rules across different leagues can turn a smart signing into a registration headache if you have not checked in advance. Insert sell-on clauses into every deal because in crisis football your best players will eventually leave — you might as well profit when they do. And never be afraid to sell a fan favourite if doing so fixes the slope of your wage curve. Sentiment is expensive. In crisis football, you win by inches. If you want a single resource that pulls all of this together into a repeatable system, the Mastering FM26 ebook covers dual shapes, recruitment frameworks, dynamics and finances across 165 pages — written specifically for saves where the margin for error is zero.
