All week, the Blog Squad will be paying tribute to CM9798 as we approach the 29th anniversary of the game on Saturday. There’s rumours of a quiz. Here’s Matt to kick us off.

Hi, I’m Matt Wills and you might remember me from such blog saves as ‘Vinny Samways neck is missing!’ and ‘P is for Philomen Masinga’, but right now, on the anniversary of the release of this great game, I’m here to discuss what Championship Manager means to me.

I was 16 when the game was released and had just started sixth form. I’d played around with games such as SWOS and Premier Manager 97 but no game had really grabbed me quite like CM9798. I picked up a Demo on the front cover of PC Gamer and I was hooked.

Once I got the full game my AST Pentium 166 desktop was fired up every evening for a few hours of managing my beloved Manchester United, or adding myself and my college chums to Torquay United and souping up their stats. Luckily, I managed to pass most of my A’ Levels dispute the distraction of the game, and then girls and going out and my trusty P166 came to Cardiff University with me. Architecture was a full on degree and so was socialising, so the game took a back seat for a few years, only being picked up now and again until I discovered ‘some guy’ called Dave Black and his blog and decided to have a go myself.

This was born ‘Return of the King’ bringing Cantona out of retirement for a shot at Champions League glory, followed by blogs of variable success and enjoyment. Whether it’s teams filled with South Americans, Africans or the Welsh ones, the game has helped me in darker times, when life hasn’t been too hunky dory and I just need a few hours of warm nostalgic escapism. CM9798 does that for me. It’s simple to pick up and play, but also provides enough of a challenge to keep me hooked. It’s also filled with players I remember fondly from Match of the Day and Football Italia, but beyond that, it’s the joy of finding an unearthed gem. I once took a punt on a Portuguese youngster called Carlos Coelho how plundered 43 goals in a season for Benfica but has been absolute dog shit every single time since.

For me, the game still springs surprises like young Carlos or Kurban Kurbanov, an unlikely hero guiding you to glory. Beyond that is the community, especially my mates in the Blog Squad who never fail to make me laugh on a day to day basis.

In the game, I do have my pet players I always want in my team, from Ruben Sosa to Japhet N’Doram, Thomas Gravesen and David Brown, and also have a perverse love for restricted transfer rules, forcing me to try out the unknown and unheard of.

Anyway, Dave kindly asked me to sum up what the game meant to me and it’s simply the warm glow of nostalgia you get from slipping back to a far simpler time, when players had character and your ‘never will be’ can have their time in the sun. You can keep your FM25’s and your updated databases, I’m off to see if I can do a better job of ruining Man Utd than the Glazer’s, cheers!

You can enjoy all of Matt’s work on the site here.