What I love about this game is that you rarely get the same pattern twice. Sure, certain things always happen, like Howard Kendall getting the Wales job early on after Bobby Gould gets the sack, but the rest is a mystery.

To be clear, here is my starting position:

The database has been patched, much to my annoyance, so it is slightly updated from the default you would get out of the box back in the day. The differences are minimal but some transfers are updated, e.g. Andreas Andersson at Newcastle. Some players seem less likely to move too, such as Rio Ferdinand who normally can’t wait to get out of West Ham.

There are several players in the database who have retired, who I’ve made available on free transfers, such as Bryan Robson & Diego Maradona. I don’t know why.

The player histories for Lionel Perez and Eric Cantona are in the database but the players aren’t. Cantona retired surprisingly at the end of the 96/97 season so he was already in the database. Perez’s absence is inexplicable to me but regardless, I’ve created both and they are ready to party.

The patch means that the old £50k wagecap is gone, if your club is rich enough you can offer up to £100k per week for a player. Remember, this is 1997.

I think there’s less than 50 players in the game who are still actively playing. Robbie Keane, Ian Harte, Rio Ferdinand and Francesco Totti are just some examples. Speaking of Totti, here he is 18 years ago:

Wanted by Inter & Parma, I’d say that boy will have a bright future.

You can only run three country leagues, so I’ve gone for England, Spain and France. I’ve included France as it’s a league I’ve never really dabbled in, but this game might be the time for that to change.

Finally, the most important point, I’ve decided to begin as Wimbledon. This is long before the MK Dons came on the scene and ruined everything, and they are still a Premier League club. Let the nostalgia commence!