Championship Manager: Season 00/01 - PC

If there is one thing you can rely on when it comes to the beautiful game, it is its unpredictability. Another surety in life is that when Eidos and Sports Interactive get together to bring us a further instalment of the Championship Manager series, they intend to go the whole hog and make it as comprehensive an experience as possible. So, how can these people cram even more detail onto a disc when their last outing, Championship Manager 3, was fit to burst with obscure players and enough stats to keep certain Sky Sports broadcasters happy? Simple, just sling a load more league teams from the great footballing nations such as Northern Ireland, Greece, Australia and Finland into the mix, invite interactive media involvement from real newspapers and footy websites, and a handful of extra tweaks to the game-play, and the deadly striking duo of Eidos and Sports Interactive score again. Championship Manager Season 00/01 is the PC version of the cavalier football favoured by Kevin Keegan in his tenure as manager of Newcastle in the mid-nineties: to use a well-worn analogy, no matter how many goals other developers and publishers may score, the CM series always aims to score one more. The difference here is that while 'The Toon' were sometimes fallible, Eidos and Sports Interactive never get it wrong.

A cursory glance at this new version will reveal nothing new to the casual observer, but delve deep into the game and the subtle differences creep up on you. Before you know it, the pressure will be on. Players will be dropping like flies, directors will be on your back, and your e-mail inbox will be bombarded with (mostly unwelcome) messages. You really can draw a line between footy management games and real life, and it's testament to the pulling power of this genre that folks would prefer to spend their leisure time playing the part of a person who suffers the trials and tribulations of something so close to reality.

There are surely more record breaking sales on the horizon for Eidos and SI with the release of this game, and it's a safe bet that it will win a few awards too. Girlfriends and wives beware, your menfolk are going to pay you even less attention from now on. more