As 2014 draws near I’ve come to a conclusion, and one that
is something of a strange one to admit to. For many years I’ve played Sports
Interactive’s Football (previously Championship) Manager Series, but despite
being very successful I don’t think that I’ve often been very good at it.
I started out with the 97/98 incarnation of Championship
Manager, albeit that I picked it up a couple of years after its release as a
bargain bucket purchase. I was hooked. Back then it seemed that all you needed
to do was pick a formation and get the right players for it. There wasn’t a lot
more to it than that; I picked Ipswich, added in Björn Heidenström and Ibrahim Bakayoko, and
that was as good as job done. Okay so I may be over simplifying a bit, but it
is only a bit.
I didn’t stick with 97/98 for long, moving on to the classic
01/02 edition as my first ‘new release’ purchase. A 22 season rampage with
Blackburn Rovers saw the beginning of my support for that particular club – I’d
always been an armchair neutral until then – and shortly after I began a save
with Northampton Town which saw me begin writing about the game.
My writing was largely creative, for the SI Games forums – specifically
the Stories Forum. I found it a great way to immerse myself in the game and
make it come more alive. In 2010 I hung up my keyboard on the stories forum,
having enjoyed great ‘success’ on the writing front, and mixed results in the
game(s).
