u/bfhrt

Long-term is an important clarification, cus I think the games have largely gotten better progressively, and as someone who has been here since getting cm01/02 for Christmas, I still think FM 24 is the peak of the series.

FM 26 is prob the first time I've thought an installment was actively worse than its predecessor since cm4.

I initially wrote a really long and rambling theory for why I think this the case, but I deleted it cus it was shit and annoying, and also cus I'm not trying to convince anyone of a hot take, genuinely just curious what other people think.

Of the ~20 or so subreddits I lurk and occasionally post on, this one is definitely the one where negative opinions about the thing the subreddit is dedicated to are most negatively received. I'm not saying that's an inherently good or bad thing, I'm just curious if that reflects other people's experiences.

It was a pretty cool scene. Stumbled upon thedugout.net as a stupid 12 year old looking for cm03/04 tactics, and basically spent a summer holiday getting rightfully bullied for talking absolute bollocks.

This is one of the best subreddits I look at, but it just ain't the same.

I certainly don't think we come close to the likes of Allardyce Bolton, but we were a proper team for a while there. Mulumbu and Yacob, one of the most cost-efficient double pivots in premier league history, Jonas Olsson, the thinking man's centre back, Shane Long, running around a lot.

Plus the absolute bang average club legends like Chris Brunt and James Morrison. Not underrated exactly, just unfairly forgotten.

Ask a supporter of a major (how you define major I'll leave to you) club in England, Italy, Germany, Spain or France whether they'd rather win the champions league or their domestic title on a scale from much prefer to win league to much prefer to win champions league, I'm pretty sure England would be the major outlier.

To reiterate what I said in the title, I'm not using this to argue that the Premier League is "better". I'm absolutely neutral. I just think it's a somewhat overlooked fact.

What do you reckon?