Football Manager is extremely popular and has been an escape from real life for football fans across the world for decades.
The game has been on the go for 20 years now and releases an updated version every year. All that time the forums have been full of supporters discussing wonderkids and their potential. So, just for fun, we went back into our Steam library and downloaded Football Manager 2014 and set the game to simulate for ten years, bringing us in line with present day in real life.
We took a look at how the game expects Scotland to line up for their opening match of Euro 2024 and while quite a few players will be familiar to the Tartan Army there are plenty names who had fantastic virtual careers but didn’t hit the same heights in our world. Here is how FM14 thought the Scotland starting XI would look for their Euro 2024 opener:
(As anyone who has played the game will expect, the squad did feature a number of re-gens - computer generated players created by the game to replace real life players who age out. We did not include these players in our starting XI and replaced them with the next best player in the squad in their position)

9. CB - John Souttar (simulation)
Newcastle United snapped him up from United for £1.8m and he had loan spells with Blackburn Rovers and Bolton Wanderers. He spent most of his career at St James' Park but was bought by Wigan Athletic to help their Premier League campaign in 2022. | SNS Group

10. CB - John Souttar (real life)
Was part of the provisional Scotland squad but missed out on the final cut for the Euro 2024 finals. Currently at Rangers having spent seven years with Hearts. | SNS Group

11. CM - John McGinn (simulation)
Nottingham Forest were the team that brought him to England from St Mirren and then Cardiff City where he has been a key player since 2019. | SNS Group

12. CM - John McGinn (real life)
Beloved by Hibs fans from his time at Easter Road and now captain of Aston Villa and Steve Clarke's star man for Scotland. | Getty Images