Our FM27 wishlist brings together reader suggestions and FM Blog's priorities: a faster PC interface, smarter AI clubs and careers that stay interesting long after the real players retire.
A good Football Manager save gives you plenty to think about. Should you sell your captain? Is that academy winger ready? Can your midfield survive another season without a proper holding player?
Finding the relevant information should be the easy part. Several readers who contacted FM Blog described frustration with navigation, missing details and routines that take too much effort. Others wanted stronger AI opponents, better conversations and more atmosphere around the matches that matter.
Those suggestions form the basis of this list, alongside our own priorities for Football Manager 27. Reader contributions are credited throughout, with direct quotations distinguished from summaries of their ideas.
There is a useful starting point in Sports Interactive's FM27 announcement: the studio plans to develop the current design while bringing back elements players valued in earlier editions. We want to see that approach carried through into the everyday experience of managing a club.
The 30 proposals below are our wishlist, rather than a list of confirmed FM27 features. They cover improvements to existing systems, returning favourites and more ambitious ideas for future development.
Our five priorities: consistent reliability, an efficient PC interface, smarter AI squad building, believable player conversations and a richer academy recruitment process.
Reliability and the PC Interface
1. Release a Finished, Polished Football Manager
Buttons should respond, responsibilities should save and familiar workflows should keep working as a career develops. These are reasonable expectations for a game we might play for hundreds of hours.
Sam Clayton told us that his experience with FM26 had damaged his trust after buying every edition since FM12. His request was straightforward:
"Regardless of the features, ensure the game actually works as it's intended."
Sam Clayton, FM Blog reader
FM27 needs thorough testing across long saves, different hardware and everyday tasks. An impressive new feature loses its appeal quickly when the routine actions around it are unreliable. Consistency would do a great deal to rebuild confidence.
2. Build a Proper PC-First Interface
Mike Walton's leading request was an interface designed around the PC experience. That means making full use of a mouse, keyboard and the space available on a desktop monitor.
Right-click actions, keyboard shortcuts and efficient tables should make regular tasks quicker. Comparing two players should preserve the information you were looking at; moving between recruitment screens should keep your place and relevant filters.
There is room to improve on both older interfaces and FM26's design. The practical test is simple: can a manager complete a familiar task quickly, with enough information to make a good decision?
3. Bring Back Information Density
A squad screen should help us assess the squad. On a suitably sized monitor, we ought to be able to compare condition, form, playing time and contracts without constantly scrolling or opening separate panels.
FM27 should offer compact and comfortable display options, adjustable row heights and useful column layouts. Players who prefer more breathing room could keep it, while those who want a spreadsheet's worth of information could build that view.
The same principle applies to league tables, scouting lists and player profiles. Show related information together so that comparison becomes easier.
4. Improve Fullscreen, Ultrawide and Scaling Support
Andreas Bolko highlighted the unused space he encountered on a 34-inch ultrawide display. A wider screen should give us a more useful view, with room for additional columns or relevant panels.
At higher resolutions, text and controls need to scale consistently. Switching between fullscreen and windowed play should preserve readable layouts, and increasing font size should not hide essential actions.
This deserves attention across ordinary laptops as well as expensive monitors. Most of us will spend far longer reading these screens than admiring a launch trailer.
5. Support Serious UI Customisation and Skinning
Custom skins let players organise Football Manager around the information they use most. Attribute colours, panel layouts and the prominence of key information can make a substantial difference over a long career.
FM27 should provide a clear, supported route for that customisation. Useful documentation and stable interfaces would help creators maintain their work when the game updates.
Built-in accessibility options also deserve attention. Players should be able to adjust contrast, text and information displays without depending entirely on a community skin to make the game comfortable to use.
Club Identity and Football Atmosphere
6. Make Club Identity More Visible
A club's stadium, honours, rivals and greatest players should be easy to explore. As a save develops, its pages should also capture the history we are creating: the promotion-winning captain, the first European campaign and the academy graduate who became a record scorer.
Andreas described the feeling he wanted back:
"What I miss most is the football immersion."
Andreas Bolko, FM Blog reader
Better links between club history and current events would help. Returning to a club after ten seasons should give you a clear picture of what happened while you were away.
7. Bring Back the Anticipation of Cup Draws
Several readers wanted proper cup draws back. Seeing each opponent revealed gives us time to hope for a favourable tie, fear an away trip or imagine a giant-killing.
FM27 should make draws easy to follow, with clear information about possible opponents, seeding and the consequences of the result. The presentation can be brief and still create anticipation.
An option to skip straight to the outcome would suit managers in a hurry. For everyone else, the draw is part of the competition's story, especially when a small club has reached unfamiliar territory.
8. Make Transfer Deadline Day an Event
Sean Hunter asked for the old Deadline Day experience alongside cup draws and stronger crowd atmosphere. The common thread is a sense of occasion.
A deadline hub could bring together developing deals, incoming offers and the time remaining to complete them. A rival signing your target should affect your options; selling a squad player late in the day should create an understandable risk.
The activity needs to follow the market and the club's circumstances. A quiet window can stay quiet. When several transfers depend on one another, however, the game should help us follow the chain.
9. Give Stadiums More Personality
Georgios Mastrogiannis suggested flags, banners, tifos, club colours and national anthems to make important fixtures feel different. Those details work best when they reflect the teams and the occasion.
Derbies could carry more tension, away supporters could have a clearer presence and decisive goals could produce a stronger reaction. Sound matters as much as the visual presentation.
A title decider and a routine friendly should feel distinct before we even read the score. Appropriate settings would let players choose how much presentation and crowd audio they want during a long session.
10. Restore Flexibility in the Smaller Tasks
Jóhann H. Ragnarsson raised pre-season tours and tournaments alongside academy development. Bert, replying to our newsletter, wanted easy export of save data to spreadsheets.
These are useful examples of how people make their own entertainment in Football Manager. A manager might organise a local tournament, plan a tour around an affiliate or analyse recruitment in a spreadsheet.
FM27 should make those routines straightforward, with flexible friendly scheduling, accessible historical records, useful comparison views and exports that preserve meaningful column headings. Small tools give players room to build much bigger projects around their saves.
AI Clubs, Transfers and Manager Careers
11. Improve AI Squad Building Across Multiple Seasons
An elite club should recognise the problem with five senior left wingers and no credible right-back. It should also start planning replacements before an ageing core reaches the end of its useful career.
We want recruitment decisions to reflect positional depth, wages, age balance and the manager's approach. A major signing should fit a plan, including a realistic route to playing time for younger players.
This needs to hold up well beyond the opening season. Strong rival squads make long careers more rewarding because the human manager has to keep improving to stay ahead.
12. Make the Transfer Market More Believable
António Rodrigues wanted more activity around low and mid-value players, alongside greater difficulty in attracting world stars to clubs outside the elite.
A useful Championship striker should have a plausible market among clubs that need his qualities and can afford him. An unwanted player on an excessive wage may attract very little interest, even if his ability is good.
FM27 should explain these situations more clearly through agent feedback and recruitment reports. Playing time, ambition, finances and location should produce understandable decisions. Selling a player can be difficult without leaving the manager guessing why every approach has failed.
13. Give Player Conversations Better Context
Brian McDonagh described conversations that too often feel like a choice between backing down and threatening a player. Better context would make those interactions more convincing.
If someone complains about playing time after a lengthy injury, we should be able to discuss his recovery. Recent starts, previous promises and the relationship built over several seasons should also influence the exchange.
The first priority is relevant responses and consistent consequences. More natural dialogue would be welcome, but it needs to reflect the save accurately. A player can disagree with us while still acknowledging what has actually happened.
14. Let AI Managers Develop Their Ideas
A manager who prefers a 4-3-3 might join a squad better suited to a back three. We want that experience to influence his thinking, particularly if a change of approach produces sustained success.
Assistants, new leagues and the players available could all shape how a coach develops. Some managers would remain committed to a philosophy; others would adapt more readily.
Those differences would give AI careers more character. Following a former assistant's progress could reveal a recognisable coach whose methods have evolved since leaving your staff.
15. Make Long-Term Changes in Football More Convincing
A save that reaches 2051 should reflect the results, investments and failures of the preceding decades. FM already models parts of that change; we want the connections to become more convincing and easier to follow.
Repeated European success by Croatian clubs could strengthen the league's appeal. Sustained investment in academies could improve the flow of talent. Financial mistakes should leave consequences that last beyond a single poor season.
Change should take time and remain plausible. The reward is a football world whose balance of power has developed through the events of your save.
16. Make Manager Recruitment More Specific
António also wanted more approaches from other clubs. The most interesting improvement would be offers that reflect what a manager has achieved and how they work.
A club with a promising academy could value your record of developing youngsters. A relegation-threatened side might favour experience of organising a limited squad. A demanding dressing room could make your handling of senior players relevant.
Interviews should explore those priorities, with clearer expectations about the job. Moving clubs would then become a decision about the project and your suitability, as well as salary and reputation.
Training, Youth Development and Scouting
17. Make Training Decisions Easier to Understand
Training connects tactics, fitness, development and injury risk. We should be able to understand the effects of our decisions well enough to adjust a programme with confidence.
After a week focused on pressing, what has improved? If we reduce the workload before a cup final, which benefits are we giving up? Useful staff feedback could explain the trade-offs without exposing every calculation.
Creating, reusing and adjusting schedules should also be quick. Clearer workload displays and recommendations that account for the fixture list would let us spend more time deciding what the squad needs.
18. Turn Youth Recruitment Into a Season-Long Process
Youth Intake Day is a highlight of many saves, but there is scope for a much richer build-up. Academy recruitment could give us decisions to follow throughout the season.
Our Head of Youth Development might identify local prospects, arrange trial matches and explain where the academy needs investment. Rival clubs could compete for the same youngster, while reports gradually reveal more about each player.
Location, facilities and coaching would give clubs different strengths in recruitment. There should still be surprises when the intake arrives, but we would recognise some of the names and understand how they reached us.
19. Make Player Development Less Predictable
Some prospects establish themselves early. Others need a loan, a change of position or several seasons with the right coach. We want more convincing variation in when players improve and what helps them take the next step.
That also means clearer uncertainty in scouting and development reports. A staff member should be able to explain why their assessment has changed, whether through better knowledge of a player or evidence from his performances.
The aim is to make development decisions interesting throughout a career. A late breakthrough or an unexpected plateau can leave a stronger memory than another prospect following the familiar route to the first team.
20. Make Recruitment Focuses More Useful
Brian's recruitment request was straightforward: useful reports that follow the brief. If we need a young, left-footed centre-back for a high line, the recommendations should explain how each candidate fits those requirements.
When the search produces little, scouts should tell us why. Perhaps the budget is too low, the region is poorly covered or the criteria exclude most realistic targets. That gives us something to change.
Differences between scouts should be more visible too. Their knowledge and ability should influence the quality and certainty of the reports, helping us decide where to send them next.
21. Improve Newgens Throughout the Football World
By the later decades of a save, generated players carry the entire game. Their appearance, attributes, personalities and career paths need enough variety to sustain that world.
We want believable positional profiles, with different ways for players to be effective. An unusual full-back or technically limited striker can be interesting; repeated implausible combinations across whole generations would undermine recruitment.
Faces and body types deserve attention, alongside the supply of capable managers, coaches and scouts. Testing long saves should examine the football world those systems produce, including its strongest clubs and the smaller leagues that ambitious managers eventually visit.
Match Analysis and Tactical Decisions
22. Make Detailed Match Analysis Accessible
Pass maps, touch maps and shot locations are valuable when they help us diagnose something. If our striker is isolated, we need to see where possession breaks down and who has opportunities to find him.
FM27 should make it easier to move between a tactical question, the relevant data and the match footage. Comparing the periods before and after a substitution or formation change would be particularly useful.
Clear labels and consistent access matter as much as extra statistics. Managers should be able to explore the evidence and judge whether a proposed change addresses the problem.
23. Make the Match Screen a Better Management Workspace
During a match, the information we need changes constantly. We may want to inspect a tiring midfielder, check the opposition's new shape or find out why a flank has become vulnerable.
Those actions should be quick and preserve our place in the match. Adjustable panels could keep the most useful information visible, with straightforward access to player instructions, substitutions and opposition details.
For example, an opponent moving a winger inside should be visible in the tactical information as well as the highlights. We could then assess the danger and decide whether our full-back needs different support.
24. Bring Back Meaningful Touchline Management
Andreas, who also coaches youth football, missed being able to influence players from the touchline. We would like contextual instructions that connect to what is happening on the pitch.
A nervous youngster might need reassurance. A team protecting a lead might need a reminder to keep possession. A defensive unit could receive a specific message about an opponent finding space between the lines.
Players should respond according to their personalities, understanding and circumstances. Clear limits and believable reactions would make touchline communication useful while avoiding a routine in which we press the same morale button every few minutes.
25. Make Individual Qualities Easier to Recognise
A midfielder with excellent Passing and Vision should offer different possibilities from a reliable ball-winner. A forward's first touch should help explain why he can receive under pressure, while a powerful striker should create a different kind of threat.
We want those differences to be easier to recognise across the match engine and the available analysis. Technical and mental qualities should have convincing opportunities to influence the game alongside physical attributes.
Even excellent players will make mistakes. Over time, however, their strengths should be visible enough to reward the effort we put into scouting and role selection.
26. Reduce Tactics That Work Regardless of the Players
António wanted fewer apparently infallible tactics. A system becomes less interesting when the same combination of instructions dominates with almost any suitable squad.
Strong tactics should still reward good management. Their success should depend more convincingly on the players' abilities, the demands of the system and the opposition's response.
Rivals could prepare for repeated patterns and exploit visible weaknesses without receiving artificial advantages. If we repeatedly leave the same space unprotected, a capable opponent should have a reasonable chance of using it. That would give us a football problem to solve as the season develops.
27. Improve Decisions During Transitions
Georgios suggested quicker goalkeeper distribution when a genuine counter-attacking opportunity appears. It is a good example of the situational judgement we want to see more clearly.
A keeper who catches a cross could recognise three team-mates breaking into space. An attacker could weigh a shooting chance against the support available, while a defender could respond appropriately to pressure and the score.
Individual mistakes belong in football. Repeated failures to recognise similar situations deserve closer examination, with decisions reflecting the player's ability, instructions and what he can realistically see.
International Careers and Stadium Development
28. Build on the Return of International Management
International Management has already returned to FM26, with new match preparation and squad-building tools. FM27 can build on that work to make managing a country a more absorbing career. SI's update announcement explains the starting point.
We want stronger connections between club form, national selection and tournament planning. Staff could flag tactical gaps in the available squad or explain how an injury changes the options for a particular opponent.
Eligibility decisions, limited preparation time and the pressure of short tournaments should shape the experience. Distinctive presentation would help make qualification and major finals feel as significant as they are to the supporters.
29. Develop a Meaningful Youth International Career Path
Mike's suggestion deserves a focus on progression: make work with younger national sides matter when a federation chooses its next senior manager.
An Under-21 coach could be assessed on preparing players for senior football, implementing an agreed approach and tournament results. Regular contact with the senior staff would give those priorities some substance.
A successful spell could improve your chances of a senior interview, while relationships built with a generation of players could carry forward. That would give a youth international career clearer stakes and a more convincing connection to the rest of the managerial job market.
30. Make Stadium Development Part of the Save's Story
Taking a small club into Europe can eventually lead to a new stadium. After years spent building the team, that announcement should feel like a major reward.
We would like clearer explanations of capacity, cost, expansion potential and the board's choices. Concept images and construction updates could make the wait more engaging, with limited input into naming where appropriate.
The opening match deserves attention too. Recognising the old ground's history, the supporters' move and the scale of the achievement would make the new stadium feel connected to the career that paid for it.
Which Three Changes Would You Choose?
The proposals here vary in ambition. More reliable navigation would improve almost every session. A season-long academy recruitment system would take much more development, but could transform a youth-focused career. Both deserve discussion, with the everyday foundations taking priority.
What we want from FM27 is a game that keeps giving us worthwhile decisions: a rival who has worked out our tactics, a player whose development changes our plans, or a club job that tempts us away from a team we built.
You know where a good save leads. You sit down after dinner to play one match. Then a transfer offer arrives, a youth player needs a contract and the cup draw sends you to Barcelona. By the time you have dealt with your striker's injury, it is 2:17 in the morning.
Which three changes would make the biggest difference to your next save? Tell us in the comments, including anything we have missed. A specific example from your own career is welcome too.
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