As we begin our fourth and final season in the Football Manager 2023 universe we find ourselves in new territory - the FIFA Club World Cup.

What's managed to escape us in recent years because, well, we weren't winning Premier League titles or Champions League titles or FA Cups or anything like that, both Liverpool and Man City are in the FIFA Club World Cup. That means we've packed our bags to head to Japan for a few weeks in lieu of the regular pre-season to try get our hands on the first piece of silverware of the season.

Ok, technically, since it's now a summer competition and not a winter competition, it's a bit more last the last possible bit of silverware of the previous season but you see where we're going with this one.

As a result, this week we're navigating the Club World Cup while trying to crack the rest of our summer transfer business before the calendar swings into July. You might notice that we're also a month away from the official release of Football Manager 2024, meaning we're probably 2-3 weeks away from getting our hands on the beta version / early access, which also means thanks to the feature set for FM24, we might just have to carry on our FM23 journey and hope for the best - no pressure.

With both Liverpool and Man City among the favourites for the competition, let's see how things get underway over a rainy day lunchbreak in October...