Francesco Viola

I'm Francesco Viola, a writer at Football Handbook. I've been a Football Manager fan for a long time now, and I've made it my mission to help all budding managers out there understand the beautiful game and its intricacies.

3 Ways To Sign HIGH Reputation Players (Football Manager)

Sometimes, your club needs a little bit more clout, and your board won’t be happy until you sign some “high-reputation players”.  If you want a real-life example, look no further than LA Galaxy signing Zlatan Ibrahimovic back in 2018. Now, that is what signing high-reputation players means. However, whenever that little goal pops up in …

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3 Effective Ways to Improve Your Players’ Attributes (Football Manager)

Last updated on January 12th, 2023Attributes are the most important piece of data Football Manager throws your way. Not only do they let you know immediately what a footballer can do, they also tell you precisely how good (or bad) he is at these certain things. Generally, when I need to choose which roles some …

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Do Stars REALLY Matter In Football Manager? (Deep Dive)

Star ratings in Football Manager can easily deceive you, especially if you’re coming straight from games like eFootball or FIFA. Both of these games have an ‘overall’ rating system. For example, FIFA assigns a 1-5 star rating to each team, based on the average rating of each player.  When I first started playing Football Manager, …

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Why Your FM Players AREN’T Developing (And 5 Ways To Fix It)

Developing players is an integral part of any FM career.  You could go ahead and only buy players at their peak, but that’s both expensive and inefficient.  Instead, you should focus on developing your best prospects and recognising when older players have passed their peak.  By paying attention to player growth, not only will you …

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The Ultimate Guide To Reputation (Football Manager)

In Football Manager, everything has a reputation.  Your club has one, and so do your players, your staff, your country, and your league. Even you, the manager, have a reputation! However, it’s still not entirely clear what it influences.  I mean, it’s pretty understandable that Man City is a more reputable club than some mid-table …

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4 Tips To ‘Get Rid’ Of Players (Football Manager)

So, you’re trying to balance your club’s finances. You’re going through your squad and notice three or four once-great players who won’t cut it anymore.  Maybe you’re trying to get rid of ‘stepping-stone’ players just like Man City had to do a couple of years ago while rebuilding its squad.   Either way, they have to …

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2 Ways To IMPROVE Aggression (Football Manager)

Last updated on October 16th, 2022Some attributes are far easier to understand than others, especially mental ones. It’s all good and well when it comes to dribbling and heading, but what about concentration, off-the-ball or flair?  Aggression is another odd attribute – it’s hard to notice what it actually modifies. Worse yet, most people don’t …

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