Football Manager 2007 - First Details

Football stocking filler.

Posted by Staff
The UK’s newspaper of renown The Sun has declared that God exists, so if you were previously an atheist, then it’s time to rethink your gameplan, we’re afraid. They know this because of the miracle of Wayne Rooney’s metatarsal not being broken. So there we go - centuries of rigorous scientific enquiry out of the window. The chosen metatarsal has clinched it.

Of course, the Sun is staffed by frothing, jingoistic imbeciles, so SPOnG takes all the above with just a little pinch of salt. And who gives a toss about what the Sun sez about Rooney anyways? Not us. Not when we’ve just been sent the new details on Sega/Sports Interactive’s next version of Football Manager 2007 – which is going to be on a console or PC/Mac near to you before Christmas 2006.

Football Manager 2007 promises over a hundred new features. Unfortunately they are a tad vague on exactly what these new features are, but our faith in Sega and Sports Interactive allows us to still be excited about the game. There is mention of the Xbox 360 version having much more of a ‘joypad friendly’ experience, whilst Football Manager Handheld is going to be packed with more playable leagues, plus network play so you can compete against your mates.

Wave goodbye to your girlfriends and wives, Football Manager fans. Just put “Sega’s fault” on your Decree Nisi.

Sports Interactive boss man Miles Jacobson, still ebullient after his hometown team Watford's victory in this year's play-offs, securing their place in the Premiership, said: "We are constantly striving for perfection and are on track to deliver our most authentic football experience yet. There will be a new, easy to use default skin, as well as improved hints and tips throughout the game. More in-depth feedback from your assistant manager and coaches, plus interaction with any player worldwide makes this an unmissable and very user friendly experience, and our best football game by a country mile."

And here’s what we’ve been told so far about the new features.

Feeder Clubs - Brand new to Football Manager 2007, and one of the most requested features on Sports Interactive’s forums has been the addition of feeder clubs to the game. This new addition works in all the ways you would expect it to in real life. You can establish your club as the small team who receives loan players from a larger club or a large club looking for support getting your youngsters match experience by loaning them out. Have the first option on players from clubs, and schedule pre-arranged friendlies each season by simply asking your board for a feeder relationship and choose from the list they compile.

Youth Revamp - A complete revamp of youth teams sees full youth squads for each team that has a youth set-up, thus giving a much better system for the regeneration of players in the long term game.

User Friendly – Football Manager 2007 gives players a new easier to use default skin, along with hints and tips throughout the game, and an improved tutorial. In addition to better feedback from your assistant manager and scouts as well as lots more media, customisation and multiple row selection, all this adds up to the most user friendly Sports Interactive game ever.

Scouting Revamp - A complete revamp of the scouting system inside the game leads to more information about players and teams being made available to managers, as well as a more realistic methodology for player scouting. This system allows scouts to grow and improve their knowledge-base of the world’s football players.

Player Interaction - You can now talk to any player in the world via the media. Player interaction allows you to tap up other teams stars or see if players will buckle under the pressure. An effective manager must use the media as a motivational tool - why not praise your own players in many different ways or shout at them for loss of form?

Team Talks - For more varied ways to talk to your team, SI have worked hard to deliver vastly improved team talks at half and full time. Not only this, but pre-match team talks will now be making their first appearance in Football Manager - so you can send your team out onto the pitch with a specific briefing.


Football Manager 2007 for PSP, PC, Mac, Intel Mac and Xbox 360 is set for release this side of Chrimbo. At least you’ll have something to keep you occupied this Christmas, when your nan and the rest of family are hogging the Wii.

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