Oktoberfest Chronicles; The Return of 1860 Munich

[KWFM]

Some saves end naturally. Others are taken away before their story is truly finished.

My last journey with TSV 1860 München got further than I ever imagined. Six seasons in, we had clawed our way from obscurity to the very top of German football. A DFB-Pokal triumph sat proudly in the trophy cabinet, and a second-place Bundesliga finish had us knocking loudly on the door of greatness. The rebuild was working. The Lions were roaring again.

And then… silence.

That update became the final chapter. Life moved on, the save drifted into limbo, and one of my most enjoyable Football Manager projects was left frozen in time… not failed, but incomplete.

This new save exists because of that feeling.

Over Christmas, a new MacBook landed under the tree, and with it came the perfect excuse to wipe the slate clean and start something properly. Not a continuation. Not a recreation. But a fresh, meaningful long-term project that does justice to both the club and the challenge.

Once again, TSV 1860 München sit in the shadows of German football. Not so much crippled by debt anymore, but still ignored by expectations, and permanently compared to their neighbours across the city, they remain one of the most fascinating fallen giants in Europe. The difference this time? I know exactly what lies ahead.

I’ve learned how brutal the climb through Germany’s lower tiers can be. I’ve learned how vital youth development is, how patience beats panic, and how quickly momentum can shift at the top level. This save will be built on those lessons, smarter, slower, and with a clear identity from day one.

The ambition remains unchanged:
To make Munich blue.

Objectives for FM26

• Fight through the divisions and win the Bundesliga
• Turn success into dominance with consecutive league titles
• Establish TSV 1860 München as the top club in the city
• Build an elite backroom staff centred around former players
• Create the best youth academy in Germany

Bayern’s mountain of silverware still looms large, and overtaking 33 major trophies may sound fanciful — but this save isn’t about realism alone. It’s about seeing how far a well-run club can go when given time, structure, and belief.

Updates will arrive at 3 key moments throughout the season:

• 1st September – post-summer window review
• 1st February – after the winter window closes
• Final day of the season – full campaign breakdown

As always with long-term saves, I want this journey to extend beyond Football Manager itself. I’m planning to finally attend a TSV 1860 match in real life and im already looking to get my hands on a shirt, a small but personal connection to a save that means a lot to me.

This is a reset. A new machine. A new save. And one more chance to finish the story properly.

Auf geht’s, TSV 1860 München.

 

[leckuno]

brilliant mate, was just starting a save with them as well

 

[KWFM]

Season 1 - Building From What We Have

As I kick off this journey, I felt the best approach was to properly acclimatise myself with the squad and make the most of what is already in place at 1860 Munich. Because of that, I made the decision to disable the first transfer window. It is a slightly different way to start a save, but with a squad that already looks fairly strong, it felt like the right move for a long term project like this.

On top of that, I am going full non-league to legend style. No past history, no coaching badges and absolutely no reputation. What could possibly go wrong.

There is still some room left in the wage budget, but the priority for now is holding on to key players like Verlaat, Jacobsen and Wolfram. They all look more than capable at this level and with the right development could form a solid core as we aim to climb the leagues over the next few seasons.

Here is a look at the full squad heading into the season.

Below is what I see as my strongest starting eleven.

Ideally, I would like to add a new goalkeeper and a couple of CMs, as depth in those areas is pretty thin right now. That said, we will wait until at least January before making any moves. I want a proper feel for where we really stand as a group before dipping into the market in the new year.

Expectations are high. Both the board and supporters want a title challenge, with the playoffs being the absolute minimum. That means we need a fast start if we are going to tick off some of those objectives early on.

Financially, things look healthy at first glance, but there is a small catch. We are carrying around £53 million in loans, which is definitely something to keep an eye on. In previous Football Manager saves this kind of debt has mysteriously vanished with a change of chairman, but how realistic that is remains to be seen.

Finally, we are currently third favourites for the title, which puts us in a strong position heading into the campaign. With a solid 3-4-2-1 formation, I am quietly confident we can mount a serious title push this season.

I will be back at the end of January with an update and hopefully it will be a positive one. Let us see if this journey can get off to a flying start.

Auf geht’s, TSV 1860 München.

 

[KWFM]

Season 1 – Midseason Update

Well here we are half a season down already! I’ve had a decent week of getting through this save, already turning it’s a ‘one more gane’ type of save! Which is always a good sign!

I come back to you with a new president in charge! The Tauer reign has begun, not that it means too much to us apart from the fact we now are debt free! I really aren’t too sure on how this all works, but I’ll take not having the ridiculous monthly payments eating its way into this years balance, lovely job!

Results

So we ended up getting off to a bit of a flyer. It’s always a nice start when you don’t know the team too well and your getting to know them all as we get further into the year. We’ve been pretty dominant infront of goal and the formation with the 3 top men are ideal for this level of football. As you may notice below though we do seem to be letting in a whole lot of goals. We certainly have more of a score one more than them type of attitude so far this year.

With 11 wins, 4 draws and 4 losses we’ve certainly had a great start and it’s left us sitting in a very lofty position so far.

There’s still a long way to go in the season but the rate we are scoring goals and winning games we are looking extremely positive for this first season promotion!

The Squad

So far some of our standout players have been the likes of verterans Volland and Niederlechner. Both chipping in with plenty of goals and leading the line well for us. I’m hoping that Haugen will chip in with a few more in the second half of the season as he would round off our front 3 nicely at the pace we are going at.

The squad has all been used reasonably well with a lot of rotation, but I think have such a small squad makes you do that. I did notice there was a few holes that needed to be filled though, so we have now dipped into the market for the first few players.

Transfer Update

Yes you are reading that correctly. Rui Patricio is a TSV 1860 Munich player. A 38 year old GK. He’s almost the ideal fit for us right now, he plays well with his feet and also isn’t on a craxzy long term deal so we have a bit of movement if he does begin to deteriorate.

I’ve also dipped into the market for Bruckner, a wing back and DM so adds some extra depth we are in need of for the back end of the season. We’ve also added Niangbo who can play CAM or up top for us, again another depth piece and helps fill the gaps of some of the players we’ve offloaded this jan.

I decided to clear a bit of wage budget and move on a few people who haven’t had any minutes so far, mostly because they were out of contract in the summer so felt like a good opportunity to cash in a little and clear out some space for some of our new signings.

And finally our finances may be taking a hit but we’re definitely in a good place still. We’ve not spent any money on players and I’m only a little over the wage budget which will certainly drop with so many players out of contract at the end of the year.

Now its time to kick on and see how good we can make this season, I’m sure it could be a giant step in the right direction even if its with an ageing squad!

Auf geht’s, TSV 1860 München.

 

[KWFM]

Season 1 Finale - Back on the Bus (Even If the Wheels Nearly Fell Off!)

So here we are. Season one is wrapped up and, if I do say so myself, it was done in style. This save has officially become the addictive “one more game” variety, and now that the dust has settled it feels like we’ve just taken our first real step on the road back to German football relevance. From the winter slump to the spring surge, it was everything you want from a first year in charge: learning the squad, finding a shape that works, patching up the leaks, then suddenly banging in goals for fun. A proper ride.

Results

We kicked on in January and, with a few depth additions, things looked promising for the run-in. And then we decided not to win a match again until March. The wheels didn’t just wobble, they looked determined to fly off the bus entirely. The back line was leaking goals like a sieve, confidence dipped, and you could practically hear the Oktoberfest brass band switching from upbeat polkas to funeral marches.

Then, out of nowhere, we settled. A 4–1 win to open March seemed to flip a switch and from that moment we never looked back. Four games from the end we sealed promotion. Three games from the end we wrapped up the title. The form in March and April was outrageous and suddenly we weren’t just the plucky promotion chasers… we were the division’s pace-setters.

Having no cup football helped. With an empty schedule we could recover properly and didn’t need to go wild with rotations or tactical experiments. It was all about consistency and, for once, FM treated consistency kindly.

We finished the season with a far superior goal difference and a frankly ridiculous 99 goals scored. Conceding 50, however, tells its own story. We’re great fun, yes, but perhaps a bit too generous for a team with ambitions of climbing the pyramid.

The Squad

Since January the squad has been pretty settled and incredibly efficient. Haugen was a monster up front, finishing the season on 28 goals. Our full-backs Jakob and Rittmüller were just as important, racking up a combined 46 assists which is exactly what you want when your veteran strikers are happy to lurk in the box and let the youngsters do the sprinting.

Patricio arrived in January and slotted in seamlessly. With Dahne injured he never managed to reclaim his place and we essentially steamrolled from March onwards without ever thinking twice.

In total we only used 26 players, including a couple of U23s to meet the league quota. Volland at 33 might just have one more season in those legs, whereas Niederlacher at 35 looks like he may be nearing the end of his time in the spotlight. Pre-season will tell us everything.

The contract situation is where things get interesting. Nine players are expiring, seven of whom played real minutes this year. That leaves a big window to bring in quality for the next level and finally build proper depth. It also helps that we somehow managed all of this while sitting 11th league-wide in annual salary spend. A well-run club? In my FM save? Miracles do happen.

The dreaded “improved contract” notification has popped up more than once already, so keeping everyone happy might be its own mini-game next year.

Finances

Financially we’re still in a great place. The wage budget is generous and while I’ve already dipped into it for renewals, there’s still room to manoeuvre. With free agents, expiring Bundesliga contracts and relegation bargains about to flood the market, I’m quietly confident we can build something properly competitive.

The board expects us to battle relegation next year, but if there’s anything Football Manager has taught me, it’s that a well-timed transfer window can make a mockery of expectations. On the right summer we might even dare whisper the words: back to back promotions.

Now it’s time to dive into the window and see what deals we can pull off. I suspect we’ll need eight or nine real quality additions to make a push, but that’s part of the fun.

Auf geht’s, TSV 1860 München.

 

[KWFM]

Season 2 - Let the rise continue…

We may have taken a little longer than planned to come back with this update, but as you’re about to see, a lot has happened over the summer.

First things first, let’s admire the new kits. There are no major changes, but it’s the subtle tweaks I always love to make in a save to help everything feel fresh as we head into a new season.

Even with the window now closed, we remain in a very stable position financially. There’s no debt, plenty of money in the bank and we’re only overspending by 1.6 percent on wages, which for me is a big improvement. The club feels well set up going forward.

Transfer Movements

We’ve said goodbye to a couple of stalwarts from last season, all for good reasons.

Pfeifer wanted a ridiculous new deal, around 5k a week more than any other player at the club. Once he became unhappy and a healthy bid arrived, we had little choice but to accept. It also gave the club a nice boost financially.

Niangbo just wasn’t quite working out for us this year, so I sent him out on loan with his wages covered. Hopefully that creates some interest ahead of a permanent move in the new year.

And we can’t move on without mentioning the 35-year-old Niederlechner. Already well on his way to becoming a bit of a save legend for me, but his levels had clearly dropped. It felt right to move him on and it’s great to see he’s already found the net for his new club. Nice to know he’s still got it when needed.

The New Signings

I wanted to bring in eight or nine real quality players for this season and I genuinely think we’ve done just that. To avoid endless reading, I’ll break them down simply as I’m sure we’ll be hearing plenty more about them in future updates.

Anderson, Centre Back – The new man in the middle of the back three. Still young, but with Premier League experience under his belt.

Peart Harris, Attacking Midfielder - Probably our best addition. He’ll be the number ten and a huge part of our goal threat. Three goals in his first five games already tells its own story.

Johnen, Goalkeeper - The new man between the sticks. Home grown in nation and with plenty of room to develop.

De Wijs, Centre Back - An expensive contract and his scout report promised more than we’ve seen so far, but his experience is something we needed with the step up in level.

Aremu, Defensive Midfielder - Another younger addition who should rotate well alongside Jacobsen and Christiansen.

Sessegnon, Wing Back - The perfect back five signing. Comfortable on either side and ideal cover across both wing back roles.

Onyango, Centre Back Or Defensive Midfielder - A useful versatile option who can fill in across the back three or step into midfield when needed.

Drakas, Attacking Midfielder - One of a couple of younger signings who may not see too many minutes this year. Bags of potential and handy to have when called upon.

Krahn, Defensive Midfielder - Another one for the future. Plenty of upside, even if game time might be limited for now.

Dele Alli, Attacking Midfielder - Yeah… I fell into this one. I saw him, offered a reasonable deal, knew he wasn’t really what we needed and still went through with it. Oops.

Dike, Striker - We spent most of the summer trying to find someone to support Haugen and right at the end of the window we might have landed someone even better to partner him up top.

As you can see, we’ve brought in a lot of players, yet no loans and no transfer fees paid. Wages have almost doubled, but we now have a solid base for a team stepping up to a new league.

Squad Overview

We head into the new season with a 23 man squad full of potential. Twelve players remain from last season and a good number of them are still part of the starting eleven. Wages have risen significantly and we’ve had to reward players like Verlaat and Haugen to keep them happy, which I’m more than comfortable with.

Even with that increase, we still only sit 13th in the league for salary per annum. That gives me confidence we haven’t gone overboard if things don’t quite go to plan this season.

Despite all of this, we’re still expected to finish 17th. All that work and not a single shift in expectations. But everyone loves an underdog, right?

Now it’s time to kick on with Season 2 in the new division and hope the summer planning really pays off. Let’s see how far we can go. And like I said before, very quietly… back to back promotions?

Oh, and before we go, check out these beautiful Bundesliga 2 graphics.

Auf geht’s, TSV 1860 München.