The McGowan FM Challenge

It’s the summer of 2021 and you’ve just been appointed as manager of Heart of Midlothian Football Club. Despite winning promotion back to the Premiership the season prior, Robbie Neilson has been removed from his post as the club looks take a different approach for the new season. The board are looking for you to qualify for the Europa Conference League, to sign younger players and to utilise the youth academy as much as possible. BUT, there’s another element to consider now…

One of the new additions in the summer is former cup winner Ryan McGowan. Despite being 31, the Australian international has been given a 4-year deal at Tynecastle. Not only that, but he has been made club captain. Does he have some dirt on the board? Some compromising photos of someone? Whatever the reason, you’ve now been tasked with ensuring McGowan plays every week. Unless he’s injured, McGowan starts.

So, the McGowan Football Manager 2022 challenge. Basically you take control of Hearts and do your best to succeed, like any other game of FM. But the challenge is that Ryan McGowan must play whenever he is fit. Once McGowan retires, or leaves the club, the challenge is over. So how well can you do while he is there?

We’ve created an editor file which you can use to start the McGowan challenge. The only things that have been changed in this file are:

• Ryan McGowan added to the Hearts squad
• Ryan McGowan given a 4-year contract at Hearts
• Ryan McGowan made Hearts captain
• Ryan McGowan “Injury Proneness” reduced to the lowest rating (so very unlikely to get injured)

McGowan’s attributes, other than his injury proneness, have all been left the same; which means you’ve got to try to succeed using a player who may not be as good as others at your disposal, or others you could bring in. But hey, that’s why it’s a challenge!

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE EDITOR FILE >>https://scarvesaroundthefunnel.co.uk/McGowanFMChallenge.fmf

Once you’ve downloaded the file, save it in the following location:

Documents\Sports Interactive\Football Manager 2022\editor data

You can then start a new game of FM22, but ensure you select the McGowan Challenge file when setting up the game (as you can see from the below screenshot, you can also use other editor files along with it – although we would recommend only using ones that fix aesthetic details, such as competition names, logos and kits, rather than giving yourself any advantages by adding transfer funds or increasing player attributes!)

Once you start your new game, you will see that Ryan McGowan is part of the Hearts squad and is also club captain. At this point, the decision is yours as to how you set the team up and best utilise your Australian superstar. Can you play him in a back 4? Or will he fit better into the back 3 system that has worked well for Hearts up until this point? All we ask is that he always plays. If he does get injured, get him back in ASAP. We want to hear how well you get on, but the more McGowan plays the better.

What can you achieve with your new “first name on the teamsheet” signing? Well, over to you…

NOTE: The above edit is to be used with Football Manager 2022, full edition.