The time is finally here. Two years on from the last football manager game, football manager 2026 is now here. That means it's time for Mr Arthur Bradley to come out of retirement and take the helm at Everton FC.
Everton have had a tough time over the last few seasons, mismanagement led to a poor Squad that couldn’t be improved upon due to financial restrictions. This led to a few seasons with relegation scraps especially during the 2023/24 season when the club also faced a point reduction. Thanks to the return of David Moyes in 2025 taking over from a struggling Sean Dyche, the team were led to a comfortable 13th place finish. Now in the real 2025/26 season, Moyes’ side is off to a flying start. Thanks to new recruit Jack Grealish, who has 4 four assists in 2 games as well as established players such Ndiaye and Pickford still being solid between the sticks, Everton won two of their opening three matches. The club has also just moved to the new Hill Dickinson Stadium at Bramley Moore Dock making for a historic moment that the players will hope to build upon.
My Aims for this FM save is eventually to return Everton to the dominant force they once were and turn Merseyside blue again. This obviously will take time though and this first season I will be aiming for a top half finish, a solid run in the FA Cup and potentially even get some silverware in my first season by winning the EFL Cup.
Let’s take a look at the Squad I have available to try and achieve this.
Goalkeepers
Tom King
Jordan Pickford
Mark Travers
Defenders
Adam Aznou
Jarred Branthwaite
Seamus Coleman
Michael Keane
Vitaliy Mykolenko
Jake O’Brien
Nathan Patterson
James Tarkowski
Midfielders
Carlos Alcaraz
Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall
James Garner
Idrissa Gana Gueye
Tim Iroegbunam
Merlin Röhl
Forwards
Thierno Barry
Beto
Tyler Dibling
Jack Grealish
Dwight McNeil
Iliman Ndiaye
Star Players
Jordan Pickford
Not only is he Everton’s number 1 but England’s as well and for good reason. Pickford could be credited as one of the main reasons why Everton haven’t been relegated in recent seasons pulling off crucial saves that have stopped us losing much needed points. Having joined Everton from Sunderland in 2017 for a fee of around £25 million, he has definitely proven money well spent, playing over 300 matches for the club across all competitions. His stats on FM26 back this up, now valued at £44 million - £48 million with attributes such as one on ones at 17 and reflexes of 16. His contract has recently been extended so that it runs until 2029 meaning he’ll probably see out his career at Everton.
Iliman Ndiaye
Ndiaye, the 25 year old winger, only joined Everton in 2024 from OM for a fee of around £15 million. That fee has already been a bargain as he was one of Everton’s best players in the 24/25 season scoring 11 goals in 37 games. I’m expecting him to be one of our biggest threats this season and he is very diverse being able to play on both wings and the centre. With his value in FM26 standing between £31 million and £34 million, we may have other clubs come knocking. With attributes like 17 in dribbling and 15 in finishing though, we will be trying to keep him at the club.
Jack Grealish
Finally, the most recent addition to the Everton squad coming in on loan from Man City with an option to buy totalling around £50 million. After starting his career at Aston Villa, where he achieved 64 goals and assists across six seasons, he made a record breaking move to Manchester City in 2021 for over £100 million. He never really took off at City though, leading to him only playing in 20 league games during the 24/25 season. Hopefully the move to Everton will reignite his career. He will also be aiming to get back into the England squad as he has a total of 33 caps but hasn’t appeared in the national squad since October 2024. His value stands at around £60 million but his attributes of 17 in dribbling is a good place to start looking at his worth.
Rising Stars
Jarrad Branthwaite
The 23 year old centre back has been a regular starter for Everton for a couple years now but I believe he still has more to give. After a stellar loan spell at PSV during theb22/23 season where he played 37 matches, scoring four times and gaining two assists, he slotted nicely into the Everton squad during the 23/24 season replacing Conor Coady who had left the club after his loan spell. Now he largely plays in the central role alongside Tarkowski. Whilst in reality, Branthwaite has started the season with an injury which has seen him side-lined, in FM he is raring to go with attributes such as 18 in jumping reach and 14 in technique.
Tyler Dibling
Dibling is another player who only joined the club this transfer window. He left recently relegated Southampton for a fee of around £35 million. The 19 year old right winger made 38 appearances for the Saints last season, bagging four goals for himself. While he’ll more begin his career under my management coming on as a substitute for players like Ndiaye or McNeil, he is primed to make a big difference to the club over the coming years. That’s as long as other clubs don’t come knocking as his value currently sits at £45 million to £54 million.
Merlin Röhl
Another new signing during the summer window. Röhl had come across from Freiburg on an initial one year loan. Slotting into the midfield, he will provide cover for players like Gueye and Garner and is a young replacement for Doucoure who left after the 24/25 season as his contract ran out. If he makes an impact this season I’ll definitely look at making his move permanent as attributes such as 15 in pace and determination makes him a great young prospect. He’s also made several appearances for the U21 Germany squad including making it to the final of the recent U21 European Championships where he bagged one goal in the four matches he played.
Influential Players
Seamus Coleman
Does much need to be said about this man. A true blue who leads the squad into the new era at Hill Dickinson Stadium as captain. After joining The Toffees from Sligo Rovers in 2009 for an unbelievable fee of £60,000, he has since won over the hearts of the blues. Whilst he only played five league matches last season due to injury, his leadership behind the scenes is the bigger impact now. Having taken over as club captain from Phil Jagielka in 2019, his influence over the dressing room is massive with a leadership attribute of 17 alongside him being a huge role model to many younger players. Coleman also had an illustrious international career for the Republic of Ireland. He’s made over 70 appearances since his debut in 2010, and while he’s not played internationally since 2024 due to injury, Ireland boss Heimir Hallgrimsson still hopes for Coleman to don the green shirt again. As Coleman is now nearly 37 years old and his contract expires at the end of the season, I’m guessing this may be his last season for him. I do hope though that I can get him to join Baines as part of the staff team. Either way, the number 23 jersey will definitely be known as his shirt for a long time to come.
James Tarkowski
From captain to vice captain, Tarkowski is also a hugely influencial figure on the team. While Coleman maintains captain duties off the pitch, his reduced minutes means Tarkowski is often the captain during the games. Having joined the club in 2022 on a free transfer from Burnley, the English centre back has certainly made an impact since then. While he is known for making occasional mistakes, he has only missed four league games in the three seasons he’s been with the blues. This really demonstrates why he has attributes such as 17 in heading and leadership. Across the last five years, Tarkowski has played the more minutes in the Premier League than any other player, closely beating fellow teammate Pickford. It seems criminal that Tarkowski has only made two appearances for England, both back in 2018. While he is beginning to slow down at 32 years old, he still remains as one of our best centre backs and will hopefully remain at the club for years to come.
Idrissa Gana Gueye
The final player I will talk about in this post is Gueye. Gueye originally joined the club in 2016 from Aston Villa before moving to PSG in 2019 where we made roughly £20 million profit. Gueye then rejoined the team in 2022 for less than £4 million at the age of 32. Since then, the defensive midfielder has been a big part of the club, making over 100 appearances across the three seasons. With attributes such as 18 in tackling and 16 in work rate, he can still put in a shift for the blues. Is contract currently runs till the end of the 25/26 season with a possible one year extension. He already has a solid replacement in James Garner and depending on how Merlin Röhl develops we will see whether Gueye remains a blue going into the 26/27 season. This year though, he will remain a big part of the squad.
Transfer Plans
Right back
This is probably our most desperate position we need to fill. Our current options are Seamus Coleman (who is injury prone and 36 years old), Nathan Patterson (who hasn’t really proven to be Premier League quality) and Jake O’Brien (who is our best option but isn’t a natural right back). One possibility to look at is Tottenham’s Djed Spence. The 24 year old had a breakout season at Tottenham under Postecoglou and will want to build on that this season. He would be guaranteed more game time moving to Everton as he has Pedro Porro and Destiny Udogie challenging his role. Tottenham however does have Champions League football this season so a move to a side who has no European football could be a tough spell. Another option could be Espanyol’s Omar El Hilali. The 22 year old Spanish born Moroccan defender led La Liga for tackles won last season helping Espanyol keep their place in Spain’s top flight. There is a reported £12.5 million release clause which would be a bargain as a replacement for Coleman who can also play across the defence when needed. A free agent in this role who is a possibility is Takehiro Tomiyasu. The Japanese international left Arsenal this window after four years with them. With attributes such as 15 tackling, the 26 year old could definitely rotate well in this position. He has over 30 caps for Japan, however he is injury prone including currently struggling with a knee problem so it could be a gamble.
Striker
This is another position which needs addressing sooner rather than later. Our current number 9, Beto, isn’t reliable enough to bag us goal after goal which is what we need as we reinforce our attack. While he scored 12 goals across all competitions last season, we need someone who can reliably score game after game. We have sign Thierno Barry this window from Villarreal but at 22 years old and only just having moved to the Premier League, I can’t rely on him coming in bagging goals. One of my possible ideas is finding a striker who is a free agent such as Patrick Bamford or Jamie Vardy and offering then very low wage with good performance based incentives. Therefore if they don’t work out we don’t lose out a lot. Otherwise, I will be looking to sign someone like Josh Sargent who currently plays for Norwich in the Championship. He has easily been one of the best players in the Championship since he signed for the canaries in 2021 netting over 40 goals in the three full seasons he’s played there so far. With a value of around £25 million, he could definitely be worth it but will Norwich give up their best player easily?
Central Defender
This is our lowest priority and is more of a just in case sort of signing. We do have a good selection of central defenders however at the moment it’s only really Tarkowski, Branthwaite and Keane starting there as O’Brien is generally covering that right back role. Therefore, especially if we don’t sign a new right back, we will want extra cover in the centre role in case we get an injury. A player we we’re linked with in real life was Nathan Ake. The 30 year old Dutch defender only played ten league games for City last season so would probably appreciate a move to a club where he would get good minutes. Attributes like 16 in marking could definitely make him a good option for us.
Website information
Let me quickly go through each page of this website so you all know where you need to go for what.
Home
Very self explanatory, this is the home page for the website.
The Squad
Again, fairly straightforward. A list of all players currently playing for Everton’s senior team and some of the staff as well.
Matchday Reports
If you want full detailed reports of each match, this is the place. This will include full lineups, details of each important event as well as post match analysis and interviews. If you want brief reports that’s okay too, see the monthly review section.
Monthly Review
At the end of each month, I will put together a summary of what’s happened. Brief match reports, injuries, trophies players have won etc. We’ll also look at the league table and briefly how other teams are doing.
Headlines
This is the place for off the pitch actions. Injuries, transfers, contract negotiations will all come here.
Everton Focus Honours
This section won’t start filling in until later in the save. This is where the trophies, legends and accolades go. While there may be the odd player of the month award early on (hopefully), we may be waiting a few seasons before we get more excitement here.
The Wider World
As it sounds, this section will be following things that don’t relate to Everton. Other countries leagues, all European competitions, international breaks and awards such as the balon Dor.
The Archive
Want to look through past seasons? This is the place to go. Final tables, squad stats, milestones. At the end of each season, everything of importance will go here.
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