Football Manager 2018: 10 Challenging Teams You Must Consider Managing

A new Premier League season began in August, its arrival made official on opening weekend when the Match of the Day theme tune rang out for the first time in months; but as far as Football Manager's army of fanatics is concerned, it's still pre-season.

The beautiful game's 2018 edition has just arrived in beta form, for those who had the foresight to pre-order their copy, giving the initiated a good reason to put their life's priorities on hold early and developer SI Games the chance to iron out any bugs ahead of the big kick-off lin November.

Naturally, most beta players will have taken charge of their favourite team. They know the squad well, have a firm grasp of the tactics their club usually employs and a good idea of what aspects of the team need to improve.

This is just one way of playing it safe in Football Manager, and another is taking charge of a shark in a goldfish bowl. The Paris Saint-Germains, Celtics and Bayern Munichs of this world - anyone who heads up one of these dominant giants is unlikely to go the way of Frank de Boer or Ronald Koeman in their first season.

But most budding managers in their bedroom dugouts will soon start yearning for a challenge, and luckily FM18 is packed with them, from sleeping giants begging to be awakened, to mid-table mainstays with world-class youth facilities just waiting to be mined, and newly-promoted minnows with the odds stacked against them.

These are the challenges that separate the Guardiolas from the Mike Bassetts.

Everton rode into the new season on a wave of optimism, but it crashed hard against the banks of the River Mersey and left a godawful mess behind. Ten games into the new season and the Blues have found themselves inside the bottom three, teetering on the brink of Europa League elimination and without a manager.

Signing a bunch of expensive players that do not fit together was one of the biggest missteps that cost Ronald Koeman his job as head coach, and the Dutchmen has left an utter car crash behind for you to sort out.

Players will have problems including an ageing squad - Ashley Williams, Wayne Rooney and Leighton Baines are playing walking football these days - an overabundance of number 10s and the lack of a goalscoring striker to contend with during their quest to succeed where Koeman failed, but FM18 won't be all doom and gloom at Goodison Park.

There's a crop of hugely promising youth players, from Tom Davies to Dominic Calvert-Lewin, waiting for the right coach to help them reach the next stage of their development, while Farhad Moshiri's millions will help FM players strengthen the squad in the key areas Koeman failed to address over the summer.

Taking on Everton in their current state is a big job, but with the finances and youth facilities at your disposal, can you help them achieve their lofty ambitions of a place in the top six?