Top 10 Must See Football Manager Blogs & Those You Should Avoid
Like us you probably spend loads of time scouring the web looking for awesome FM ‘stuff’ to better your game knowledge and performance, but how do you know who to trust?
We’ve cut the ‘muts’ from the ‘nuts’ and put together our top 10 Football Manager blogs to save you the time, check out our favourites and the page on their site that we think helps you the most.
Our job with this blog is to give real, quality information that actually helps you as FM players, for that reason we have also found a couple of blogs that we don’t think offer you much in the way of advice.
Those of you with a keen eye will see that we haven’t even put ourselves at the top of the list, but we will get there.
Disclaimer: The stats below are estimates, I am happy to update based on fact if you are the owner of these sites.
No 1. My Passion For Football Manager
An all-round posse of information on all aspects of the game, loads of content on pretty much any FM subject you can think of.
Estimated Daily Traffic: 4700
Recommended Content: Pretty much all of it
Positives: Loads of original content that helps everyone from noobs to veterans, loads of authors so content diversity and some great downloads
Negatives: Subscription model is poor, come on guys, feedburner is not the future. I want exclusive stuff man and perhaps be a bit more friendly to avid readers.
Our Rating: 8.5/10 – Top dog at the moment but needs some more ‘tweaks’ to stay there.
How it could be improved: Exclusive subscription platform and ‘premium’ content.
No 2. Push Them Wide
A plain, clean and inviting website with tonnes of unique, focused and dedicated content. Pushthemwide.co.uk is all about the content and that’s what counts with blogs, in my view if it continues it will be the best around come FM 2015.
Estimated Daily Traffic: 700
Recommended Content: Deep winger tactics
Positives: Clean, crisp and full of unique opinion and tip based content.
Negatives: Quite a few website bugs (mail me for a list) and I can’t see images in Chrome. Needs more ‘stickiness’ with widgets, menus and options to keep looking around the site.
Our Rating: 8/10 – Awesome content but after reading an article you don’t know where to go next, give me some options, related content, menus etc.
How it could be improved: On-page functionality is a must, the theme is epic and I love the simplicity but a good theme is useless if people can’t find what they want.
No 3. Football Manager Old Skool
Owned, run and edited by Thomas Paine this basic but awesome looking blog deserves more attention.
Estimated Daily Traffic: 1400
Recommended Content: How the defensive triangle works
Positives: Great looking, clean and some great unique content with the suggestion of more downloadable add-ons to come.
Negatives: Bit too much ‘personal’ FM experience rather than actionable tips but still gripping stuff.
Our Rating: 8/10 – Very good-looking, well written and an all-round cracking blog.
How it could be improved: More frequency of posts and more ‘tip’ related articles.
No 4. Football Manager Blog
FootballManagerBlog.org is a great looking site with massive depth and numerous downloads, guides and tips to help the discerning FM player
Estimated Daily Traffic: 3000
Recommended Content: Awesome kit section
Positives: In-depth with loads of unique content and guides to help every level of FM player
Negatives: No real visible personality, guides can be a bit picture heavy and I don’t see the relevance/point in the live score feeds etc.
Our Rating: 7/10 – Has a good base to grow though feel they may have run out of ideas.
How it could be improved: Get rid of the irrelevant stuff and create content focused on helping the user rather than generated by them.
No 5. Football Manager 14 (us, woohoo)
A site set up and run by avid FM players, targeted at one thing alone, helping football manager players enjoy the game more through unique and actionable content.
Estimated Daily Traffic: 3000
Recommended Content: Unbelievable ‘secret’ FM players that are better than Messi
Positives: Looks pretty good, diverse content and a fast-growing fan base.
Negatives: Content can be too generic for some, new site so still some technical ‘hitches’
Our Rating: 7/10 – Lots of potential and growing at 15-20% day-on-day.
How it could be improved: More authors to spread the content and be more specific, needs some downloadable content and social media following
No 6. Football Manager Analysis
A great small, dedicated site focusing on the in-depth technical aspects of the game, awesome for people like me that love a picture and analytical writing.
Estimated Daily Traffic: 1100
Recommended Content: The Linking Midfielder
Positives: Very niche orientated content that is well ahead of the rest in terms of analytical evaluation.
Negatives: Not enough content or regularity in the posting, old-school theme.
Our Rating: 7/10 – An awesome site for those ‘thinkers’ and ‘tinkerers’
How it could be improved: Up the content levels and change the theme, this could easily turn in to one of the best blogs around.
No 7. Football Manager Story
A comprehensive site with lots of unique and useful content, a thriving community and loads of social followers.
Estimated Daily Traffic: 10000
Recommended Content: Custom scout area
Positives: Good online following with a combined 2000 followers through email and RSS, really good forum area which is full of helpful FM players.
Negatives: Advert-heavy in some areas and no real ‘face’ of the website.
Our Rating: 7/10 – A good site that will keep you entertained for a long time but could do with a face-lift.
How it could be improved: Add some personality and cut out some of the adds, will make the cracking content more appealing.
No 8. Aid The Boss
A slick website with unique and actionable content, only problem is finding it and the amount of it.
Estimated Daily Traffic: 3500
Recommended Content: Regen Dates
Positives: Good looking, loads of potential and what content there is is really good.
Negatives: No ‘stickiness’, lack of depth and no personality.
Our Rating: 6.5/10 – Could be very good in deed but currently very thin on the ground, what is there is awesome though and worth a look.
How it could be improved: More content, more content and more content.
No 9. True Football Manager
Owned and run by Vitaliy Mokosiy, a die-hard FM fan since 1996. Established in 2007, the blog offers guides, downloads and tips based on Vitaliy’s experiences of the game.
Estimated Daily Traffic: 1500
Recommended Content: Best Cheap Players
Positives: Some awesome downloadable content, great face-packs and badges and owner who puts lots of time in to the site.
Negatives: Theme is cumbersome, I imagine this leads to a high bounce-rate. I’m not keen on all the content specifically related to Nottingham Forest.
Our Rating: 6.5/10 – A very good site, lots of good unique content but needs to be more user-friendly.
How it could be improved: Change the theme and deliver content that is targeted at a wider reach, promote the downloads section more!
For those of you with a keen eye you would have noticed that there is only 9 in a top ten list, I want to open the floor and let you guys decide a blog that deserves to be in the list, comment below with your favourite!
Now for the bad and ugly
Theres 3 blogs that I want to point out here, all for the same reason really.
A few years ago these 2 blogs were good, gave good advice and helped people out but now they are never updated, lack any sort of use for anything and deserve to be avoided at all costs.
Even the older posts that I looked at had content that was either copied or didn’t work anyway.
So on that note please avoid:
http://fm.theoffside.com/
http://theziggyfm.culshock.net/
The other one that comes with a warning is www.footballmanagermad.com, a good principal on the face of it and claims to give proper tips but all the content I found and read was very old-fashioned (like the template), regurgitated and pretty useless stuff. Avoid.
Drawing Conclusions
I’m an honest man and I can really appreciate the work that has gone in to the My Passion For Football Manager site, it’s a great resource and not putting it in the number 1 spot would be lying and an injustice to the people I am here to help, you, so it gets my vote!
So there you have it 10 great and 3 not so great Football Manager blogs to get your juices flowing ready for the next FM.
What do you think to my list? Get involved in the comments below.
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Cleon
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https://footballmanager14.co.uk/ Danny Chapman
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http://www.footballmanagerblog.org/ Football Manager Blog
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https://footballmanager14.co.uk/ Danny Chapman
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Darren
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https://footballmanager14.co.uk/ Danny Chapman
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Darren
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Darren
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Ruud from TSMPLUG
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https://footballmanager14.co.uk/ Danny Chapman
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Thomas Paine