The term ‘fallen giant’ is thrown around a lot in football, typically meaning a club that had previously experienced success before regressing due to either financial problems, owner issues or continued poor performances.
In Football Manager one of the most satisfying saves a player can complete is restoring one of these former giants to their past glory.
Here we have five separate clubs who have fallen on hard times and with your leadership can be restored to trophy winners.
Deportivo La Coruña
Deportivo are one-time La Liga champions, two-time Spanish Cup winners and reached the Champions League semi-finals as recently as 2004.
However, the club were relegated to the third tier in 2020 and have only recently bounced back to the second tier thanks to the exploits of Lucas Perez.
The squad boasts a number of young talents including exciting winger David Mella as well as former Arsenal prospect Charlie Patino.
Following a 15th-placed finish last season, the odds are against Deportivo making a return to La Liga – can you be the manager to turn the club’s fortunes around and deliver a second league title to the 1999/2000 champions?
Panathinaikos
The Greek giants of Panathinaikos have won 20 Super League titles alongside 20 cup victories.
However, they have not won a league title since 2010 and have consistently been lagging behind Olympiacos in both continental and domestic success.
Johan Cruyff’s Ajax beat the Greens in the 1972 European Cup final which is the closest the side has ever come to a continental trophy.
The squad contains former Rangers striker Cyrel Dessers, former Manchester United winger Facundo Pellestri alongside Portuguese midfielder Renato Sanches.
Can you take the Greek giants one step further and win the Champions League? Or will you continue to fall down the pecking order of Greek football?
IFK Göteborg
A giant of Swedish football and one with multiple counts of continental pedigree is IFK Goteborg.
The club have won two UEFA Cups alongside 13 Allsvenskan titles, with the most recent one coming in 2007.
However, the club have struggled to replicate their past success in recent seasons and finished 15th in the most recent campaign in 2024.
The late Sven-Goran Eriksson led the club to UEFA Cup victory in 1982 against Hamburg – could you possibly replicate the legend’s actions by adding another continental trophy to the cabinet?
With a starting budget of £400,000 it will be a tough task – but with time Goteborg can be taken to even bigger heights than their past success.
Aberdeen
The last side to win the Scottish Premiership that wasn’t named Celtic or Rangers was Aberdeen, who also hold the honour of being the last Scottish team to lift a European trophy.
Yet after the departure of Sir Alex Ferguson, the club have struggled to find success with only a single Scottish Cup and a single League Cup to their name in the 21st century.
With the resurgence of Hearts under Tony Bloom, Aberdeen risk falling further behind the European spots and therefore losing out on potential prize money.
With only £500,000 in transfer budget you will need to make cheap moves to begin with – but the first challenge is knocking the big boys off their perch and potentially adding more European silverware to the cabinet.
Újpest FC
Our final entry takes us to Hungary where we find Ujpest FC, the 20-time champions of Hungary and Inter-Cities Fairs Cup runners-up in 1969.
In a league dominated by Ferencvaros, Ujpest have struggled for modern success – with their last league title coming in 1998.
They finished seventh in the last top flight campaign, their 108th consecutive season in the top flight, but severely lack the funds their rivals have due to a lack of continental representation.
Can you restore European football to the Szusza Ferenc Stadium and dethrone rivals Ferencvaros? Or will you let Robbie Keane’s men march further ahead of you in total titles?
