In today's video, I talk you through my Football Manager history and share how, eventually, you may overcome the FM addiction.
In today's video, I talk you through my Football Manager history and share how, eventually, you may overcome the FM addiction.
Hi, My name is Rhys, and if you didn’t know already, I currently run the YouTube channel here on FM BLOG, as my own FM Wonderkids channel and Fantasy Football channel. I’ll link all of these below in the article.
Today I thought I’d talk to you about my own Football Manager journey and how I have seen the game change through the years. Think of it as a bad version of one of those “How it started, how it's going” memes.
It all started back in 1999. A little known comedy act called Eminem was topping the charts with his catchy first single ‘My Name Is” (I actually bought this on cassette), The Matrix was in theatres (the first one, you know, the actually good one), and a 13 year old me, with significantly less facial hair and not a care in the world, was in love with his Playstation. Grand Theft Auto (yes, the first one), Fifa 99 (probably the best iteration of the game to date), and Gran Tourismo were all favourites in my bedroom at the time. Still, nothing really came close to the immersive experience of Premier Manager 98.
“I Want you to go through the season and not lose one match.” The background music would play on repeat, and although that would prove to be an impossible task, managing the likes of Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, Ole Solskjær was a huge thrill for a 13-year-old Man Utd fan. I do have distant memories of cutting my teeth on what must have been Premier Manager 3 before this on PC, where I’m pretty sure you had to start as Yeovil Town (this was pre-windows, by the way too, when you had to basically know how to code to start up a game) from then on I was hooked on management games. Different favourites have come and gone over the past twenty-odd years. Championship Manager 99 and LMA Manager 2002, I remember being particular highlights.
Around 2004 there was a big schism in the Football Management gaming world that saw two different games develop and compete against each other for the top spot ‘Championship Manager’ and ‘Football Manager’. Personally, I remember playing and enjoying both, possibly for several years. Still, after a while, it became clear that Football Manager was the better game and that I guess is reflected in the market with Championship Manager becoming no more around 2011, while FM has gone on to dominate the genre.
I must have bought every copy of FM since its inception in 2005. I often get asked, “Which do you think is the best Football Manager game?” My reply is usually the same. “It’s the latest version, dummy.” The game is constantly improving year by year, and although there are some additions that I don’t enjoy (*cough* press conferences*), the level of detail and work that goes into making each game better than the last cannot be overstated.
If you have liked the article today, you can get similar stuff from me across the socials: YouTube, Twitter, Discord, Instagram, or subscribe to Fantasy Manager Weekly on YouTube.
How It Started
It all started back in 1999. A little known comedy act called Eminem was topping the charts with his catchy first single ‘My Name Is” (I actually bought this on cassette), The Matrix was in theatres (the first one, you know, the actually good one), and a 13 year old me, with significantly less facial hair and not a care in the world, was in love with his Playstation. Grand Theft Auto (yes, the first one), Fifa 99 (probably the best iteration of the game to date), and Gran Tourismo were all favourites in my bedroom at the time. Still, nothing really came close to the immersive experience of Premier Manager 98.
“I Want you to go through the season and not lose one match.” The background music would play on repeat, and although that would prove to be an impossible task, managing the likes of Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, Ole Solskjær was a huge thrill for a 13-year-old Man Utd fan. I do have distant memories of cutting my teeth on what must have been Premier Manager 3 before this on PC, where I’m pretty sure you had to start as Yeovil Town (this was pre-windows, by the way too, when you had to basically know how to code to start up a game) from then on I was hooked on management games. Different favourites have come and gone over the past twenty-odd years. Championship Manager 99 and LMA Manager 2002, I remember being particular highlights.
How It’s Going
Around 2004 there was a big schism in the Football Management gaming world that saw two different games develop and compete against each other for the top spot ‘Championship Manager’ and ‘Football Manager’. Personally, I remember playing and enjoying both, possibly for several years. Still, after a while, it became clear that Football Manager was the better game and that I guess is reflected in the market with Championship Manager becoming no more around 2011, while FM has gone on to dominate the genre.
I must have bought every copy of FM since its inception in 2005. I often get asked, “Which do you think is the best Football Manager game?” My reply is usually the same. “It’s the latest version, dummy.” The game is constantly improving year by year, and although there are some additions that I don’t enjoy (*cough* press conferences*), the level of detail and work that goes into making each game better than the last cannot be overstated.
I’ve had successful saves with Man Utd; yes, Gary Neville did score in the champions league final for me, Wolves several times, really fond memories, and most recently Wycombe, which is proving one of the most challenging saves yet. You follow some of these journeys over on YouTube, linked below.
If you have liked the article today, you can get similar stuff from me across the socials: YouTube, Twitter, Discord, Instagram, or subscribe to Fantasy Manager Weekly on YouTube.
Subscribe to FM BLOG on YouTube for more Football Manager content every week.
