Football Manager 2017: 15 Essential Challenges You Need To Tackle

15. Win Promotion With Newcastle (And Stay Up)

The Challenge: Restore Newcastle United to the Premier League at the first time of asking and keep them up there. Basically, be Rafa Benitez.

A horribly vocal majority of Championship team fans might be lambasting Newcastle for "buying the league" after they had the audacity to spend some money trying to get out of the league in one season, but no team gets to the top of the Championship on signings alone.

As Rafa Benitez found at the start of the season, big names count for nothing and Newcastle have quickly become everyone's Cup Final (particularly at St James Park). That effect isn't entirely reflected in Football Manager 2017, and getting out of the Championship isn't a massive struggle, but turning promotion into consolidation is a lot more taxing.

Blooding youth along the way and getting the most out of potential wonderkids Mitrovic, Adam Armstrong and Ayoze Perez will all be key.