This year, we're bringing the Bottom At Christmas experiment back but on a bigger scale, with leagues in England, France, Germany, Italy and Spain available to choose from. First up, is Southampton!
The other day I was casually scrolling through The Guardian's excellent interactive transfer feature and noticed plenty of transfers I didn't know about and could affect our enjoyment of FM23.
What would happen if Celtic and Rangers entered the English football pyramid in non-league?
Big Sam Allardyce got his first taste of failure and relegation as his beleaguered Blackburn Rovers dropped into the Championship with barely a whimper in the 2023/24 campaign. However, there was no time to hang around as we simmed ahead to Christmas Day 2024 to discover the fourth task on this Football Manager Experiment.
Newcastle United finished 2nd in the Premier League in 2023/24 - only behind surprise title winners Tottenham. But a bumper transfer budget meant 'Director of Football' Alan Shearer had a busy summer ahead of him.
At the halfway mark of the Serie A 2025/26 season, Roberto di Lazaró had led his Sampdoria side to the top of the league and enjoyed a six-point lead over Inter Milan. That meant a first Scudetto since 1991 was within sight with 21 games remaining.
Despite going unbeaten through the first half of the 2024/25 campaign, Sampdoria went into the winter break somehow trailing Inter by five points - as the leaders had only failed to win twice and only conceded four goals in 17 games.
Roberto di Lazaró's Sampdoria side was once again defying expectations as they sat third in Serie A and were the competition's top scorers heading into 2024.
Sampdoria had massively exceeded all expectations by finishing in third in Serie A in 2022/23. However, season three was likely to be much more of a struggle as the club looked to balance competing in the Champions League with the league on a shoestring budget.
Football Manager Addict 