Football Manager 27 simulates Mansfield Town's next 10 seasons including promotion, relegation, Cup final and new manager

The new edition of Football Manager is now out across all platforms and players are getting stuck into FM27 and the many different paths of gameplay it offers.

If you aren’t familiar with Football Manager, it’s a simulation video game that allows you to take charge of your own team and oversee the likes of team selection and training, match tactics and decisions, and transfers.

Players build their own avatar and can get stuck straight into a managerial role of their own, or as GuessTheFootballer.co.uk has done, start unemployed and watch how the season unfolds as is.

Here’s what happened during Mansfield Town’s next ten seasons, starting right now at our current point in 2026/27 with Nigel Clough.

Stags finish 12th and sign nine new players in 2027

Mansfield Town bring in two new signings on the upcoming winter transfer window. Midfielder Alfie Bates arrives as a free agent and 18-year-old Fletcher Boyd joins until the end of the season on loan from Aston Villa.

Stags go on to finish this season in 12th, resulting in a busy but free summer transfer window. The following players arrive at the One Call Stadium on free transfers:

Scott Pittman, midfielder (35)

Ashley Coffey, forward (33)

Christian Dibble, goalkeeper (33)

Callum Smith, forward (28)

Will Boyle, defender (31)

Teenage attacker Ibrahim Dosso and 21-year-old left-back Ethan Sutherland also join Stags on loan from Aston Villa and Wolves respectively.

There aren’t many departures but the most notable is Stephen McLaughlin’s summer exit. The long-serving defender leaves following the expiration of his contract and re-joins former club Derry City.

U21 player Jacob Stubbs joins Harrogate Town on loan for the season and interestingly, Regan Hendry is also loaned out during the 2028 winter window, joining Scottish side Cove Rangers.

Mansfield’s efforts in the 2027/28 season see them finish eighth in League One.

A League One plummet and Nigel Clough’s exit

Despite their strong finish in 2027/28, the following season becomes a nightmare for Stags and marks the end of an historic era at the club.

A dramatic fall from grace sees Mansfield Town finish 20th in League One, narrowly avoiding relegation but not the loss of their beloved manager.

Midway through a poor 2028/29 season, Clough is dismissed from his role, eight years after first joining Stags. He retires from football management shortly after leaving Mansfield.

Off the pitch, the club increases the capacity of the One Call Stadium to 11,466 in August 2028.

A stretch of mid-table finishes

After the relegation-threatened campaign, Stags bounce back and finish comfortably throughout seasons 2029/30 to 2032/33, but only as high as 13th. Here’s a breakdown of each year:

2029/30: 15th

2030/31: 15th

2031/32: 13th

2032/33: 14th

EFL Trophy runners-up and promotion winners

Mansfield Town go all the way to the EFL Trophy final in the 2033/34 season and finish as runners-up – their only Cup final of this ten-year simulation period. They also finish 12th in League One, with a new manager at the hilt in Jean-Luc Vannuchi, formerly of Paris FC and Auxerre.

This season is a particularly busy and notable one as John Radford steps down as chairman in December 2033.

The next season (2034/35) is one for the history books. After Vannuchi’s arrival, he guides Stags to a fourth-place finish the following campaign and the club are promoted to the Championship through the play-offs.

Rock bottom and relegated

Mansfield Town’s spell in the Championship is short-lived and they last just one season in the second tier after a troublesome run.

Stags finish rock bottom of the table in 24th, leading to their relegation back to League One and Vannuchi also departs in May 2036, after their fate is sealed.