As a football fan, if you have not played Football Manager series, you’ve wasted a good part of your life. This football simulation game was a massive hit when it was introduced and if there is one game has kept improving in every version and remain a monopoly even after so many years, it is this. If you wonder if this is come kind of paid advertisement or something, no this is not. As they say, a satisfied customer is the best advertisement for a product. As someone who loves this game and spent hours and hours on it, I want to share my FM experiences with you.

fm2008.jpgAnyone out there who does not want to become a manager of a club, of the club that you support? Most of us would dream of such a proposition. We all think that we are good at football management, smart at tactics and savvy with transfers. But the thing is, the odds of Roman dialing our mobile number to ask us to take charge is high (10000000000000000000-1). So, meanwhile, we can quench our football management desire with the best simulation game available, that is Football Manager 2008.

Before I start, those who have wasted a good part of their lives, here is your primer to FM. This is a football simulation game where you’re the manager of a club who wants to bring success to your club. As the manager of the team, you can do almost anything that a real life manager does (except stuff like throwing the hair dryer at a player or accusing the referee of walking into your counterpart’s room). We get a chance to run the club, its finances, its team, its tactics, its training, its transfers, its media, its everything that a manager should do. With a player database of about half a million football players in more than 5000 playable teams from more than 50 countries, collected by 1500 scouts, it makes you feel as close to reality as possible. Lot of real football clubs have used the FM database to unearth potential and the legend says there quite a number champions league teams that use this database for their scouting.

In FM, You can buy and sell players and form your team. Just like in real life, some clubs may not accept, some players may not want to move, some may demand more, some demand a longer contract, a first team role etc. You need to be smart with your negotiation skills. Of course, you’ll have your scouts who will give you reports based on your assignments to them. If you’re not happy with the assistants or the scouts, you can always sack them (Ah, how I love it!) and get new ones. And, you can set the team’s tactics. When it comes to tactics, it goes to some crazy amount of detail like setting a role for each and every player (stay near post, stay far post, stay ready for a counterattack etc) at a defensive corner. You can also set the training regime for your players. If you think Joe Cole is poor with his headers, you can see to that he keeps heading for 24 by 7 in the training ground. Or you can even train all defenders (or midfielders etc) to be trained on the same skills and attributes. So the three important Ts here, just like in real life football management are, Transfers, Tactics and Training. It’s very difficult for me to explain you the details that are available in the game. You should play the game to realise it.

I’ve just got the latest version of this series which is Football Manager 2008. I’ve just started a career in the game and I thought of writing some kind of diary of events of my career in FM08, and there is no better place for me to record that than in this blog. To complete one season in FM08, it might take a few real months, considering that I’d be spending half hour to one hour daily.

Sit back and relax. Watch this space. I’ll hit back with my diary filled with text, pictures and football management less0ns :-)