Over the course of the past twenty in-game years of my Unione Sportiva Cremonese save I’ve devoted a lot of time and updates to fastidiously documenting the progress of my team and players. However, I feel that in doing that some of the wider aspects of the save itself have been lost. Which is what inspired this piece where I’m going to try to make up for being so Cremonese focused in the past with an update all about what’s happened across the save over the past two decades. Though it is, of course, limited to the leagues and competitions I have loaded for the save. Oh and if anyone would like more information about anything in the save or to request certain screenshots then please feel free to ask; I have save files for each individual season so it’s no trouble.

Bundesliga 1

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As is to be expected the early years of the Bundesliga were dominated by Bayern Munich as they racked up another five titles wins on the spin, to make it eight total league titles in a row. However, the loss of Pep Guardiola to Manchester United kicked off a big period of change in the league with Schalke under Beitenreiter emerging as the dominant force. Something only stopped temporarily by the return of Guardiola to Bayern in 2022. In more recent times both clubs have struggled to mount anything approaching a serious title challenge and ,as a result, the league title has been shared among various clubs for the first time in nearly four decades.

Bundesliga 2

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The years haven’t really changed the Bundesliga 2 all that much really with very few big sides dropping down from the top division, with the major exception of Hamburger SV who have become a yo-yo side thanks in part to having had fifteen managers in the past twenty years.

DFB-Pokal

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Bayern Munich’s early domination of the Bundesliga was surprisingly not replicated in the Pokal where a decent range of clubs have come through to lift the trophy. Of course, Bayern have still managed to win it enough times to extend their record of total wins to a rather daunting twenty-two.

Premier League

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Leicester City may be lifting the Premier League title in real life but on this FM save the smaller clubs have had no such luck, with Tottenham the only new addition to the Premier League winners list since the save began. And they’ve only managed it once. The biggest surprise for me was discovering that Andy Cole’s record of goals scored in the league has now stood for over forty years. Though Manchester City building a new stadium and naming it after their legendary player Calum Chambers was a pretty big shock too.

Championship

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Early doors the Championship proved to be much the same as it is in real life at the moment but over the last few years, things have become far more interesting. The relegation of Chelsea from the Premier League in 2030 was a big moment along with their subsequent inability to get back out of the Championship with three play-off final defeats in three years. They did eventually manage to get promoted again last season, however, by winning the title which is something Liverpool was also able to repeat this time around after spending two years in the Championship themselves.

League One

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Having a rich owner hasn’t been all that beneficial to Cardiff City in recent years with the club stuck in the mire of a relegation battle after relegation battle in the Championship before finally being sucked down into League One last season. Where they have since failed to earn promotion following a playoff final defeat to a Preston side achieving their second promotion in two years after winning League Two outright the previous year.

League Two

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Wigan had a very strange path to League Two with the one-time FA Cup Winners for many years having been an upper mid-table or title challenging League One side before a huge drop from 3rd place to 21st in the space of a season saw them welcomed to League Two. The good news for them is that they were able to bounce back quickly rather than slip further towards non-league football as the likes of Bolton have done in the past.

FA Cup

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In recent years the FA Cup has begun to throw up a few interesting winners with the likes of Fulham, QPR, and Hull starting to replace the previous perennial contenders such as Chelsea, Arsenal, and Manchester City. Hull, in particular, have done well to build from a Championship side in 2016 to a Europa League regulars and back to back FA Cup winners.

Capital One Cup

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Despite a good amount of variation early on things appear to have reverted to type somewhat when it comes to the League Cup where a domination of the traditional big teams in English football has emerged once more. In fact, the last interesting team to lift the cup was Swansea City back in 2029 when they were at the height of their powers competing in the Europa League and such under Darijo Srna. That win is so long ago that come next season they’ll be a Championship side once again rather than a Premier League one.

Liga BBVA

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It might be 2035 but the dominance of the big two in La Liga has yet to be broken on anything even approaching a consistent basis. Valencia had a good go at it a few years back with Mauricio Pochettino leading them to their first title for 27 years before Igor Tudor then followed that up with another win a few years later. Having two of the best strikers in the league really helped them massively, though, and since the sacking of Tudor they’ve begun to slip back a bit.

Liga Adelante

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The comings and goings in the Adelante haven’t changed too much in the years since the save began. Every now and again a decent sized team like Villareal, Granada, or Sociedad will find themselves dropping down into the division but so far no one really big has slipped down and even those that have tend to bounce right back up into La Liga.

Copa de Su Majestad El Rey

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In terms of competitive value, the Copa del Rey more or less mirrors La Liga with Real Madrid and Barcelona dominating for the most part. Especially the latter who have now lifted the trophy 33 times. Of course, there has been the odd surprise winner but even those tend to come from the sides challenging for La Liga in that season, with Valencia under Pochettino and then Tudor doing especially well.

Ligue 1

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Yeah, so Paris Saint-Germain. The End. Apart from the odd dodgy year with Monaco managing to sneak a title, it’s been complete and utter domination from PSG in Ligue 1. They show no sign of slowing down anytime soon either with Roberto Martinez having been in place as manager now for over eight years. It’s a shame, and somewhat strange, that Marseille haven’t managed to do anything in all this time as well considering they’ve had one of the best strikers in the world playing for them throughout his prime. Even if he’s past it now.

Ligue 2

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Much like the Adelante league in Spain things haven’t changed all that much in France when it comes to Ligue 2. As of yet, none of the big sides from Ligue 1 have been relegated down to Ligue 2 and ,as a result, the league has been going through much the same cycle of seeing teams go up and then having them drop back down a few years later. Auxerre, in particular, have been quite a disappointment with a long period of mid-table mediocrity.

Coupe de France

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Thankfully, quite unlike Ligue 1, no one team has gone on to dominate the Coupe de France too much over the past twenty years. Of course, PSG is still perennial contenders and they’ve managed their fair share of wins too but they also went a long time without doing so, allowing the likes of Saint-Etienne and Guingamp to put their names on the trophy.

Coupe de la Ligue

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They may not have been able to claim a Ligue 1 title in the past twenty years but Marseille have evolved into something of a cup specialist team with five Coupe de France and six Coupe de la Ligue wins in that time to ensure they sit at the top of the record table for both competitions.

Serie A

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As this is the competition and nation my save has focused on most I’m going to skim over things a bit here as what’s happened in Serie A so far has been fairly well documented to date. Suffice it to say there have been two major periods of domination, firstly the usual Juventus domination and then latterly that of my own Cremonese side. Though Milan did manage to pop up with a title win to break things up a bit back in 2021. Unfortunately, they then followed that title win with 4-5 years of failing FFP over and over again so they were never able to capitalise on the benefits of being Champions due to a lack of European competition.

Serie B

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Serie B has for the longest time been much as anyone would expect really with a decent amount of teams managing to earn promotion to Serie A before typically finding their way back to Serie B in a few years time. The only real success stories are the likes of Catania who have managed to consolidate themselves as a Serie A side after years of yo-yo-ing up and down, and also Perugia who under the tutelage of Emiliano Viviano have gone from being a Serie B side to a team competing in the Champions League with some regularity.

TIM Cup

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Again, a competition once more dominated by Cremonese over the past decade or at that was the case before plucky Pescara came along this season and ruined things by ending our magnificent run in the competition. Still, it is nice to have some actual competition after endless seasons of Juventus making it to the final before rolling over.

Liga NOS

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Sporting have been regular contenders for the title in Portugal for a long time now with a number of decent title wins throughout the 2020’s but it’s the arrival of Brendan Rodges as manager in 2028 that really shook things up in the league. Before that point, Sporting had always been contenders but under Rodgers, they went on to establish a dominance not seen before in the league. Rodgers led Sporting to three straight title wins before departing for the Portuguese national team, at which point Rodolfo Arruabarrena arrived to continue the good work which has seen Sporting crowned Champions six times in a row.

Taca da Liga

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As is probably to be expected, Sporting’s dominance in the Liga NOS follows a similar pattern in the Taca de Liga too with a period of dominance kicking in just as Brendan Rodgers assumed control of the club. Though, they did also dominate during the early years of the competition too despite the best efforts of pretty much every opponent the league could throw at them. In fact, they need just one more win in the competition to topple Benfica’s win record.

Taca da Portugal

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And surprise, surprise, it’s all Sporting once again. In the latter years anyhow but there are a few nice genuine surprises in there too with the likes of Familicao, Moreirense, and Guimares all managing to lift the cup before Rodger’s dominance effect really kicked in.

Eredivisie

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Ajax have long been the real dominant driving force behind Dutch football but thanks to Daley Blind of all people it’s PSV that is now well and truly set at the top of the Eredivisie. The former Manchester United and Ajax player arrived at PSV for the 2026 season with a tiny amount of managerial experience from a year spent at Angers. However, he quickly proved his value to PSV by taking the to back to back Eredivisie titles before leaving for the Dutch national team. With Ajax regaining the title in his absence he then returned for a 12-month stint to see PSV returned to the top of the table before once again moving on. This time around, however, PSV have not fallen off since Blind’s departure and instead under first-time manager Nathan Ake they have enjoyed five more title wins on the bounce.

KNVB Beker

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Unlike most of the other nations on this save the domination of one team in the top flight has not led to the same domination of the cup competition in Holland. PSV have claimed a few KNVB Beker wins but for the most part, the honours have been shared amongst those who have not come close to a title win.

Champions League

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Much like Serie A, the Champions League has been fairly well documented due to my own team’s participation in the competition. Still, there have been a couple of surprise winners early on never the less with Tottenham and Porto both doing extremely well to get their names on the trophy, especially considering neither side has had much success domestically.

Europa League

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Unlike it’s bigger brother the Europa League has seen a lot of variation in the number of teams able to go all the way and lift the cup. Though admittedly it has been somewhat dominated by those from the Premier League over the course of the past twenty years with even Swansea managing to edge out Roma to make their mark on Europe, not bad considering rival team Cardiff City have been down to League One since both sides last met. While Hull was unlucky to come across Spanish giants Real Madrid in their final.

World Cup

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So far, the World Cup has thrown up some odd finalists in the five tournaments to have taken place since the save began with Portugal, Ghana ,and Croatia all making it to the final. Though, only Portugal and Croatia were able to lift the trophy as Ghana had the unfortunate fate of meeting my own Italy side. The French have been rather potent in the competition too, making it to three finals in four tournaments and even going on to win the whole thing a year ago after failing in their previous attempts. Clearly, the key lies in having two Cremonese strikers up front.

European Championship

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Usually, the most OP side ever on Football Manager; The mighty England will stomp their way through most international opposition and they did manage to claim the first Euros in 2016 but thankfully ever since the departure of Roy Hodgson following that win they’ve been somewhat quiet in international tournaments. For the most part, however, the competition has still been dominated by the usual list of teams to do well on the European stage but it was good to see Marcel Koller’s Swiss side make it all the way to the final and to get the job done with a win over Germany.