[Inhocmark]

To flesh out doyce7's comment...you'll go through an initial transfer period (unless you suspend transfers that first summer in the set up options) which also acts like pre-season.

You'll play your chosen league's schedule and any domestic cup competitions they are in. In Europe you can leave 1st season European competitions off which means they'll only fire up the second season or you can option them on and manually add teams or allow the game to do it for you.

Then in January you'll have another transfer period that runs concurrently with the season.

On top of this, if your results warrant it, you may be asked to coach a national side. If you are, then you also have that side's competitive and friendly games to play.