Historic giants that lost their way - perfect long term projects for your
FM26 career.
Some FM26 saves are about winning from a position of strength. This isn't that post.
This is for the saves where the weight of history is the whole point. Clubs that had everything, lost it, and are waiting for someone to bring it back. A fanbase that remembers better days. A badge that still means something. An empty trophy cabinet that didn't used to be empty. Managing a fallen giant doesn't just give you a football challenge: it gives you a story with real stakes from minute one.
Here are 12 of the most compelling fallen giants in world football right now: with the facts behind their fall, why they matter in FM26, and exactly how to bring them back.
📋 In This Article
- Manchester United: The Empire That Lost Its Way
- Valencia CF: The Club Fighting Its Own Board
- Hamburger SV: The Clock That Finally Stopped
- Deportivo La Coruña: The Super Depor Dream
- Rangers FC: The Title Record That Had to Restart
- Girondins de Bordeaux: From Europe to the Fourth Tier
- Wisła Kraków: Poland's Most Decorated Sleeping Giant
- Sampdoria: From European Cup Finalists to Serie B
- Parma Calcio: From Serie D Bankruptcy to Serie A Return
- AS Saint-Étienne: Ten Titles, Modern Chaos
- Dinamo București: The Securitate Club in Freefall
- 1. FC Kaiserslautern: Champions to the Wilderness and Back
Premier League · 13 Titles Since 1993 · 1 Since 2013
Manchester United: The Empire That Lost Its Way
From 1993 to 2013, Manchester United won thirteen Premier League titles under Sir Alex Ferguson. Since Ferguson retired in May 2013, they have won one. The infrastructure of a superclub, from 75,000-capacity Old Trafford to global commercial revenue and a transfer budget that rivals almost any club in the world, remained intact while the results deteriorated. The problem was never resources. It was the absence of a clear, consistent identity. Every manager brought a different philosophy, every window brought different profiles, and the squad accumulated expensive, mismatched parts that never cohered into a unified team.
In FM26 you inherit that legacy: elite facilities, a demanding global fanbase, significant financial backing, and a squad that needs a clear idea more than it needs another marquee signing. The pressure at Old Trafford is different from anywhere else. Finishing fourth is not celebrated. Champions League elimination in the group stage is a crisis. The expectation is always total, and the gap between what this club should be and what it currently is defines the entire save.
Key Players to Build Around
Tactics & FM26 Tips
The squad profile suits a 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3 with a high press and direct attacking transitions. Resist the temptation to immediately spend on big names: the issue at United isn't individual quality, it's collective identity. Establish your game model in pre-season, drill it relentlessly and use the first window surgically: one mobile centre-back, one tempo-setting midfielder, one direct winger. Four clear set-piece routines before your first competitive match will bank early points while the system beds in.
La Liga · 2x Champions League Final · Fans vs Board
Valencia CF: The Club Fighting Its Own Board
In the early 2000s, Valencia were among the best clubs in Europe: two La Liga titles, two Champions League finals, winning in 2001 under Héctor Cúper and again a year later under Rafael Benítez. Mestalla during those European nights was one of football's great cauldrons: steep, tight, deafening. Then ownership changed. A half-built new stadium became a financial millstone. Years of selling key players to balance the books hollowed out the squad and broke continuity season after season.
The relationship between the fans and owner Peter Lim deteriorated into one of Spanish football's most bitter and public disputes. Protest banners, walk-outs and coordinated fan campaigns have defined matchdays at Mestalla for years. The atmosphere that once intimidated Real Madrid and Barcelona now turns on the team if things go wrong. Managing Valencia in FM26 means managing the emotional temperature of a fanbase that has been betrayed: and winning them back through results and identity.
Key Players to Build Around
Tactics & FM26 Tips
Valencia's squad suits a compact 4-4-2 or 4-3-3 built on defensive solidity and rapid counter-attacks: a style that gets Mestalla behind the team quickly. The budget is tight, so the first window should be entirely free transfers, La Liga loans and Iberian-market bargains. Avoid significant fees until European football is secured. Give homegrown talent meaningful minutes early: the Mestalla faithful notice, and that goodwill is as valuable as any tactical system in the opening months.
Bundesliga · 55-Year Run Ended 2018 · Back in the Top Flight
Hamburger SV: The Club Whose Clock Finally Stopped
When the Bundesliga was founded in 1963, Hamburger SV were among the founding members. For 55 consecutive seasons they remained in the top flight: the last surviving member of that original cohort, outlasting every relegation wave that swallowed their contemporaries. A famous clock at the Volksparkstadion counted the seconds of their unbroken Bundesliga membership. In May 2018, the clock stopped. Relegation. The display was covered up. It was a moment that made German football front pages worldwide.
HSV have since fought back to the Bundesliga, but the unfinished business is clear: they are not yet re-established as the club their history demands. They should be a regular European contender, not just a side grinding to stay up. The Volksparkstadion holds 57,000 people. Filling it for Bundesliga football is step one. Filling it for European nights is what this save is really about.
Key Players to Build Around
Tactics & FM26 Tips
A high-energy 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1 with a pressing identity suits HSV's profile and the Volksparkstadion atmosphere. Pace out wide is essential: the Bundesliga punishes slow wide play mercilessly. Build a rest defence with two holders sitting compact when both full-backs push; that cover shape is what separates Bundesliga survivors from teams that get torn apart on the counter in away fixtures. Recruit from Scandinavia and the Austrian Bundesliga for excellent value at HSV's budget level.
La Liga Champions 2000 · CL Semi-Finalists 2004 · Lower Leagues
Deportivo La Coruña: Bring Back the Super Depor
In the spring of 2004, Deportivo La Coruña walked into the San Siro and beat AC Milan 4-0 in the Champions League quarter-final second leg: overturning a 4-1 first-leg deficit to go through 5-4 on aggregate. It remains one of the greatest comebacks in European football history. The Super Depor era produced a LaLiga title in 2000 and four consecutive Copa del Rey finals. A small Galician port city competing with the giants of European football on the biggest stage the game offers.
What followed was a long, painful decline driven by financial mismanagement and repeated relegations. Deportivo drifted from La Liga to Segunda to Segunda B, each drop stripping another layer of the club's identity. The Estadio Riazor sits by the Atlantic on the edge of A Coruña: one of Spain's most atmospheric grounds on a good night. The task in FM26 is to make it that again.
Key Players to Build Around
Tactics & FM26 Tips
At this level, Deportivo are a work-rate, structure and set-piece club first. A 4-4-2 or 4-3-3 with compact shape and clear counter-press triggers will steal points against stronger opponents. The Spanish loan market is your best friend: recruit heavily from it in early seasons when fee budgets are minimal. Train counter transitions from pre-season: one well-drilled corner-to-counter routine alone can be worth six or seven points a season at this level.
54 League Titles · Liquidation 2012 · Total Domestic Pressure
Rangers FC: The Title Record That Had to Restart
Rangers hold the world record for domestic league titles: 54 in total. In 2012, the club went through liquidation and were forced to restart in Scotland's fourth tier under a new company, denied entry to the SPL by other clubs voting against their application. For a club of that standing, the humiliation was total. The four-year climb back through the Scottish pyramid, followed by Steven Gerrard's title-winning 2020-21 season that ended Celtic's nine-in-a-row bid, was one of the most dramatic stories in British football.
The pressure at Ibrox is unlike anywhere else in Scottish football. The expectation is total domestic dominance, every single season, alongside meaningful European progress. Anything short is a crisis, and loudly so. The Old Firm derby operates at an intensity that has no equivalent in British football. Managing Rangers in FM26 means living in that environment from day one.
Key Players to Build Around
Tactics & FM26 Tips
Rangers suit a 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1 with aggressive full-backs and direct wingers: the system that made Ibrox difficult to visit during their best domestic seasons. Recruit from Scotland, Ireland and Scandinavia for mentality and leadership first; quality second. Build UEFA coefficient with consistent European group-stage appearances. Better seeding means easier qualifying routes, more European revenue and better signings. It is a virtuous cycle once started.
6x Ligue 1 · UEFA Cup Winners · Now in the 4th Tier
Girondins de Bordeaux: From European Glory to the Fourth Tier
Six Ligue 1 titles. A UEFA Cup. A Cup Winners' Cup. Zinédine Zidane started his professional career here. Jean-Pierre Papin, Alain Giresse, Christophe Dugarry: the club's history is littered with names that define French football. Then financial turmoil and mismanagement dismantled everything. In 2021-22, Bordeaux were administratively relegated from Ligue 1 following the club going into liquidation. They began the 2022-23 season in Championnat National 2: France's fourth tier.
The contrast is almost unwatchable. The Matmut Atlantique, a 42,000-capacity stadium built for Euro 2016 and one of the best modern grounds in France, is hosting fourth-division football. Empty concourses, a fraction of the usual crowd, and a fanbase that knows exactly what has been lost. This is FM26's most extreme fallen giant project: the gap between where Bordeaux are and where they belong is enormous, and closing it takes patience most managers won't have.
Tactics & FM26 Tips
At this level, Bordeaux are a set-piece and structure club. A compact 4-4-2 with strong defensive organisation, a set-piece delivery specialist and short incentivised contracts is the right foundation. The Bordeaux name still attracts: use it to lock in one or two experienced players who set standards from day one. Leadership in the dressing room is what keeps a fourth-tier rebuild together through the inevitable rough patches.
14x Polish Champions · Financial Chaos · I Liga
Wisła Kraków: Poland's Most Decorated Sleeping Giant
Wisła Kraków have won the Polish league thirteen times, more than any other club in the country's history. Through much of the 2000s they were Poland's dominant side, producing players who represented the national team at the highest level and competing regularly in European group stages. Then financial problems, ownership disputes and repeated near-collapses hit. The club has bounced between Ekstraklasa and I liga without ever stabilising, and a fanbase whose passion is undimmed by results has been watching the slow unravelling for years.
The Stadion Henryka Reymana holds 33,000 people and was used as a venue during UEFA Euro 2012. It is a world-class facility by Polish standards. A club with 13 titles and that infrastructure should not be grinding through the I liga. The task in FM26 is to bridge that gap: and the clock is always ticking.
Key Players to Build Around
Tactics & FM26 Tips
A compact 4-4-2 with a set-piece specialist is the framework for I liga survival and promotion. Central Europe and the Balkans offer excellent value for Wisła's budget: prioritise players with high stamina and work rate who can sustain the physical demands of a Polish second-division campaign. The cup run is not optional: the prize money and profile it generates can accelerate your rebuild timeline by a full season.
Serie A Champions 1991 · European Cup Finalists · Now Serie B
Sampdoria: From European Cup Finalists to the Italian Second Division
Sampdoria won the Serie A title in 1991 and reached the European Cup final in 1992, losing 1-0 to Barcelona in extra time through a Ronald Koeman free kick. Their golden era under Paolo Mantovani produced some of the most elegant football in Italian history: Gianluca Vialli, Roberto Mancini, Attilio Lombardo, all playing in one of the sport's most distinctive kits. The blucerchiato strip remains instantly recognisable worldwide.
Decades of instability, ownership changes and financial mismanagement since then have left the club grinding through Serie B. The Luigi Ferraris, shared with city rivals Genoa and built in 1911, is one of Italian football's great old grounds: when both sets of fans are in full voice for a Derby della Lanterna, there is nothing else like it. A club of Sampdoria's history deserves to fill those stands for top-flight football again.
Key Players to Build Around
Tactics & FM26 Tips
A narrow 4-2-3-1 with half-spaces occupied by late-arriving midfielders suits the Serie B profile. Drill late box runs from the box-to-box eight and you generate the shot volume that Serie B promotion campaigns are built on. Sampdoria's brand attracts players who would not consider a similar club at this level: use that to lock in experienced, wage-efficient signings who set the standard in the dressing room before a ball is kicked.
2x UEFA Cup · Bankruptcy 2015 · Back in Serie A
Parma Calcio: The Most Dramatic Rise, Fall and Return in Italian Football
Parma's 1990s squad reads like a fantasy football team. Gianluigi Buffon between the posts. Fabio Cannavaro at centre-back. Gianfranco Zola, Juan Sebastián Verón, Hernán Crespo: all playing at the Stadio Ennio Tardini. Three Coppa Italia titles, two UEFA Cups, a Cup Winners' Cup. All powered by Parmalat money. Then, in December 2003, Parmalat collapsed in one of Italy's largest ever corporate scandals. The money was gone overnight. Bankruptcy followed in 2004. A decade of instability, another bankruptcy in 2015, and a restart from Serie D.
Parma climbed back through all four divisions in five years: reaching Serie A by 2018. They went back down. Won the Serie B title in 2024 under Fabio Pecchia. Now back in the top flight, the mission is to consolidate and then push beyond mere survival toward the European football this club's infrastructure genuinely supports.
Key Players to Build Around
Tactics & FM26 Tips
Parma's squad suits a 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1 built on wide attacking pace and a mobile, press-friendly midfield. Serie A consolidation is the first objective. Survival before ambition. Year two targets top half. Year three or four, European qualification becomes a realistic and genuinely satisfying goal for a club of Parma's infrastructure. The Atalanta model of buying young, developing fast and selling high fits Parma's budget and fanbase profile almost perfectly.
10x Ligue 1 · European Cup Finalists · Relegated to Ligue 2 Again
AS Saint-Étienne: Ten Titles, One Cauldron, Modern Chaos
Ten Ligue 1 titles: the most in French football history. Three European Cup finals in the 1970s. The Stade Geoffroy-Guichard, nicknamed Le Chaudron (The Cauldron), is one of Europe's most intimidating home grounds when it is full and hostile: steep, compact, deafening. ASSE's green-and-white strip is one of football's most iconic kits. Michel Platini played here. So did Salif Keïta, and a generation of French football's finest.
And yet the club has spent years oscillating between Ligue 1 and Ligue 2, promoted back to the top flight in 2024 and immediately struggling again. The gap between the legend of Les Verts and the reality of a club without a clear identity or stable management is the entire challenge FM26 puts in front of you when you click on Saint-Étienne.
Key Players to Build Around
Tactics & FM26 Tips
Saint-Étienne's identity was always built on collective energy and relentless pressing: the Chaudron at its best is generated by a team that runs, fights and presses from the first whistle to the last. A 4-3-3 high press or 4-4-2 with aggressive pressing triggers recreates that DNA. Recruit from Ligue 2 and under-23 profiles with high athletic upside on short, incentivised deals: keep the wage bill lean and the roster hungry.
18x Romanian Champions · Old Firm Rival · Post-Communist Freefall
Dinamo București: The Securitate Club That Needs Rebuilding From the Inside Out
Eighteen Romanian league titles. Multiple European quarter-final appearances in the 1980s and 1990s. Dinamo București were backed by the Securitate, the Communist-era secret police, and for decades used that institutional support to dominate Romanian football alongside eternal rivals Steaua (now FCSB). The city derby is one of Eastern Europe's most intense and emotionally charged fixtures.
Since the fall of communism, the financial and institutional support vanished and Dinamo have been in a slow, painful freefall: ownership disputes, near-bankruptcies, administration periods and a fanbase whose passion and frustration have operated at equal intensity for years. Returning Dinamo to genuine title contention, securing European football and rebuilding an identity through the academy and Romanian diaspora is the challenge FM26 puts in front of you.
Key Players to Build Around
Tactics & FM26 Tips
A compact 4-4-2 with low-block capability for European away days and a direct, high-energy style for domestic home games is the right dual-mode system. Romania, Serbia and Bulgaria offer excellent value for Dinamo's budget profile. One creative central midfielder: a reliable number ten who can unlock compact blocks: is the single most impactful signing of year one. Everything else is built around work rate and physical intensity.
4x Bundesliga Champions · 1998 Title As Promoted Side · Betzenberg
1. FC Kaiserslautern: Champions to the Wilderness and Back
In 1998, Kaiserslautern won the Bundesliga as a freshly promoted side, in their first season back in the top flight after winning the 2. Bundesliga the previous year. It remains one of the most extraordinary title wins in German football history: a newly promoted club winning the championship, unbeaten at home, in a season where Bayern Munich finished second. The Fritz Walter Stadion sits high above the city on the Betzenberg hill, one of German football's most atmospheric grounds, especially for evening European fixtures under the lights.
Four Bundesliga titles in total, yet the years since have been defined by decline: third and fourth tiers, near-insolvency, and a slow, painful rebuild back to relevance. They are now back in the 2. Bundesliga, but re-establishing themselves in the Bundesliga and eventually returning to European football is the unfinished business that makes this FM26 save worth starting.
Key Players to Build Around
Tactics & FM26 Tips
A high-pressing 4-3-3 with Bundesliga-proven wide players and a physical, ball-winning spine suits the Fritz Walter Stadion identity. Recruit from the 2. Bundesliga for proven quality at this level, supplemented by Austria, Czech Republic and Poland for undervalued players the market prices slowly. The Betzenberg under the lights is a genuine atmosphere advantage: protect it by rotating intelligently for away days so your squad arrives for key home fixtures with full intensity.
Which Giant Do You Want to Rebuild?
Every club on this list is proof of something Football Manager has always understood: history creates pressure that money alone cannot replicate. Old Trafford with one title in twelve years. The Matmut Atlantique hosting fourth-division football. The Betzenberg waiting for European nights again. Those contrasts are the whole point. They are what makes every win feel earned and every setback feel real.
Pick the club whose story resonates. Set three season-one objectives before you start. Keep the first window surgical. And go make a fanbase believe again.
For tactics to go with your rebuild, visit our FM26 Tactics Hub. For clubs with cinematic underdog stories instead of fallen giant history, see our FM26 Underdog Clubs guide. Or browse everything at the FM26 Save Ideas Hub.
