Happy New year to you all. Welcome to the 2012/13 season, or season 16 if you prefer. Last time out, we witnessed Italy win Euro 2012 and I received the job offer I’d been waiting for, or perhaps it was an SOS call. Either way, I’ve answered the pleas and now I’m manager of Division 2 Newcastle.

Division 2 is not where I want to be, I’m a multiple time Champions League winner but sometimes, you’ve just got to do what is right. To paint you a picture, look at this for a history:

Pretty grim – we haven’t even been close to getting back in the Premier League since relegation in 1999. As it stands we’re not even one promotion away…

The squad is full of unknowns…and my ex-Darlington goalkeeper Philip Humphries, who has England caps. That should help.

Celestine Babayaro is also there but I’d rather he wasn’t.

Well that works.

To be honest, I expected to come in here, sign a few players and we’d get promoted easily. I couldn’t have been more wrong though – make no mistake, this squad is absolutely diabolical. It takes us a few games to get our first win, albeit in the League Cup.

That’s followed up by our first league win

After this start, we really needed reinforcements

George Weah’s re-gen isn’t available for transfer, but oddly they will loan me him. He makes a big difference!

The goals against column is a real concern though. It feels like every attack against us ends in a goal, and none of my goalkeepers are able to make a difference.

This is a good result

This is a bad result

Coventry are a Premier League side though, read into that what you will. I’ve tried all 4 of my keepers without success.

This game loves to put you in pressure situations too

Great, neither side want a derby in their current states. Sunderland are in Division 3 whilst we concede 3 a game! We get away with it with a late turnaround.

Phew. We’ve rallied a bit and we’re as midtable as it comes.

Only 3 points from the playoffs though! Goals against is a concern – I’m just not sure how to stem the flow though.

There’s been the usual array of stories away from Newcastle, starting with the Charity Shield

Batistuta broke my heart…and now Gerry’s too.

You’re probably (not) wondering who replaced me at Norwich. Well…

First division leicester have their manager pinched – they’re now bottom of that division. Norwich meanwhile…

Oh, Gerry. I say that a lot. The table is randomised I’m sure

Blackburn have just been promoted under Darren Huckerby, and now this. Sheff Wed have got to be a good bet for the league because of their Argentinian goal machine, whilst Liverpool are probably the strongest side over the last few seasons. Darlo aren’t going well but this is how Gerry does it. Where are Man Utd!?

15th! Gordon, what are you playing at? Boro prop up the division, 51 year old Peter Beardsley still a few weeks away from returning from a broken leg but it’s probably hampered his managerial ability. Wolves have also collapsed after some decent seasons.

Whilst I try and figure out the best way to stop leaking goals, I’ll look forward to seeing you all again in the next update. Tata for now.

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The managerial merry-go-round is in full rotation as we head towards 2012. The England job is up for grabs and it’s causing a right stir. Spoiler alert – it isn’t the only International job on the table. I shall tease you no more, let’s crack on.

So the poisoned chalice that is the England job has become available, with Glenn Hoddle finally getting the sack after 15 years in the job. Yes really. I threw my hat in the ring and to be honest, I thought I nailed the interview, so this was a smack in the face

Disgusting. I’m too annoyed to even go for the Juventus job, and seemingly the rest of the world follows suit as AC Milan manager Francesco Guidolin gets out of jail free.

When I say gets out of jail free, I mean he is taking Milan to Serie B

A great appointment. The whole of Italy is disgusted so the Italian FA sack their gaffer too

Did somebody say keep it tight?

Another of the original managers makes a move, and now the biggest club side in the world needs a new manager

Oh my. I didn’t even apply. I don’t have any desire to take that job though, I’m done with the top level of Spain. Soz. Barca make a bit of a strange appointment instead.

Madness going on. Milan get a new manager by raiding fellow strugglers Fiorentina.

It doesn’t stop there, did you consider Brian Flynn in any of this?

Remind me, why was Brian Flynn at Valencia? No matter, I just hope he can get over this

A Brian Flynn for Christmas in Vicenza. And why not.

Anyway, there was a brief break in managerial movement to determine the League cup finalists

Liverpool have lost a little bit of impetus under Brian Little, Unsworth is a big loss but he is preparing Norway for Euro 2012. Sheff Wed, under Bryan Robson, are a real threat now they have the Batistuta re-gen. They’re also in the running for the FA Cup.

Man Utd are always a threat, Gordon Milne hasn’t been as tragic for them as I expected. Not to worry, time for more sackings.

Oh Daishy, you seem to get sacked once a season. Liam has now turned up at Birmingham, who are in Division 1.How do you replace Liam Daish?

Roy Evans is a league winner from 12 years ago, in many ways it’s a coup.

This is more of a surprise though.

Reid has been at West Ham a while and has won all sorts with them.

The stupidity continues as West Ham poach Alvin Martin from Leeds…

And just when you think it can’t get any more odd, Leeds appoint this man to fill the void.

Only in this game can Alvin Martin and David Beckham feature at the same time.

500 words in and I’ve barely mentioned Norwich. We’re bang average. We’ve stayed up quite easily but not consistent enough for the top 8. I’m treading water until something that entices me shows up. Sevilla are still getting on just fine without me though.

Liverpool/Man Utd Champions League clash there. Tasty. The semi-finals see Monaco back in the big time, whilst Sevilla play Man Utd.

Interestingly, the top of the Premier League is quite open

Bryan Robson is trying to achieve the treble with Sheff Wed, and Milne is trying to achieve a different treble with Man Utd. Gerry Francis is also involved. Meanwhile at the bottom

Is that enough to get Peter Reid the sack? Southampton’s goals against makes interesting reading, whilst Everton still can’t score. It looks like 2 from 4 to join Southampton in being relegated.

So another crazy few months has come to a close. Next time we’ll be in Norway for Euro 2012 – though England won’t be. David Unsworth is the English representation, as his Spain side will go seeking glory, and I will make a series of A-ha puns. Until then…

Welcome back to 2011, if you’ve been with us since the start – power to you, there’s been some rough times, but you’ve stuck with me through the latter 90s and the entire noughties. Now here we are, the culmination of 2010/2011, where I find myself as Norwich manager having come from Darlington via Madrid & Sevilla. That’s an odd CV. What have I been up to? Well, let me tell you…

League Cup

The latest pointless cup winners are in, and it was a bit of a grudge match for Roy Evans, as he takes his new club Derby up against a club he enjoyed much success with before ultimately getting them relegated.

Oh, Roy. Hard to take, probably. Still, he’s got a chance of revenge in the FA Cup

FA Cup

Roy! I’m sorry for ever doubting you. A shocker for Brian Little though.

Incidentally Batistuta junior can’t play for Sheff Wed as he already played for me but Bryan Robson is another with a huge degree of success in the FA Cup. How will it get on in the final?

How very one sided. Derby relegated too…spoiler alert there. Give it up man Roy

Division 1

When I took the rather odd move to manage a first division side, we sat 8th in September and I was aiming for the playoffs. However, momentum was building nicely until Sheff Wed shelled out £9m for my Batistuta re-gen, and now I’m just hoping we can keep it together. Remarkably though, we’ve got ourselves into this position:

So, three teams could win it and 4 are in the mix to be promoted. We’re definitely the entertainers with the most goals scored. As luck would have it, 4th place host 2nd place – it’s on!

It’s really on!

It’s off

Gee, way to go for it Blackburn. QPR are no use to me either. So it finishes like this:

The dreaded playoffs it is then. Coventry are brushed aside.

So to the final then, and an early red card has us in pieces but Ogliari comes up with the goods as he so often does.

Promoted! Well done us. There’s some talented players in the squad:

Moustaid is Legwinski re-generated but he’s been injured all season. Zidane was ok for a 37 year old and got a vital late goal. Speaking of goals

Our late run of form was amazing, deserving of promotion I’m sure you’ll agree

Anyway, let’s move on. Sevilla regained La Liga

Real Madrid all the way back in 13th I might add.

Champions League

Sevilla were on course to retain the Champions League too

But that soon went very wrong…

This was regarded as a “shock result” by the game, incredible really.

Premier League

There’s not much shocking about the Premier League though, Liverpool may have changed manager but they have retained their title – with ease I might add

Man City are still managed by Joe Royle, one of the few original managers remaining. we already knew of Derby’s demise, but Swansea have joined them and Chris Waddle (another original) & his Burnely side will have to make do with Division 1 next season.

Still time for some International stupidity. Who gets both goalies sent off?

Oh and look who got a second chance

See how he manages with a squad of no players which he can mould from scratch.

Who wants some awards!

Remember when I signed Castro (Chilavert) for Darlo? So many memories.

So with another season in the bag, we just need to find out if Beardsley & Weah are going to call it a day and whether I should stick with Norwich or move into yet another new job. Big questions, which will hopefully bring you back next time. To end with though, I bring you news that Arrigo Sacchi took Napoli to the last 8 of the Champions League, before leading them to relegation and instantly retiring. Toodles for now!

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For this edition of Champ Man & Me, I am joined by two very special guests. Paul & Olvier Collyer (MBEs) are responsible for the creation of the Championship Manager series, after founding Sports Interactive in 1992. The first Championship Manager game soon followed, and the rest is history. CM9798 fans may also know them as “Dobs” and “Ov” from the default Hall of Fame, and of course the pair are still heavily involved in the Football Manager series to this day.

They’ve taken some time out of their busy schedules to take a walk down memory lane with me.

Thanks for talking to me, gents. When this all began back in the early 90’s, did you ever imagine the game would still be going stronger than ever over 20 years later?

Oliver: To be honest it wasn’t in our mind how long it would last; it was just exciting seeing it published. I still remember seeing the first tiny preview screenshot of the game in Amiga Format while walking around the supermarket. I doubt it would have been possible to have wiped the smile off my face! If someone had said to me that we’d make careers out of writing the game and it would still be going strong 20 years later then it would probably have seemed pretty hard to believe. But in all honesty, we just weren’t really thinking that way – our focus was very much on making the game as good as we could.

What are you memories of the 97/98 game in particular?

Paul: I think this this is one of the releases that people look back on as a favourite for some reason. I believe it was an update to CM2. It was often the updates that were the best ones as they had been polished as opposed to re-written. I am fairly sure I myself had an epic game on 97-98 as Burnley, where I started in the bottom division, had a horrendous first season but managed to turn it around by basically parking the bus, getting a few clean sheets and building from there. Ended up in the Premier League, of course, but it felt earned. I always want any success in our games to feel earned.

Something that often gets brought up when Everton do well on the blog save is that you and Oliver are Everton fans. Surely it’s just a coincidence!?

Oliver: That old chestnut! We are indeed blues but hand on heart we’ve never deliberately rated Everton players any higher than we should have done. Of course these days the research is a huge operation which we aren’t directly involved in but back in the day any bias towards Everton would have been very much the result of sub-conscious if it existed at all – lets call it an innocent case of “blue tinted spectacles” rather than anything more nefarious…

I played through the CM series in a set of blogs for The Higher Tempo Press, one thing that struck me was that in 96/97 there were goals galore and the goalkeepers were pretty poor, whereas in 9798 the goalkeepers are magnificent – was that a planned move?

Paul: I should imagine we fixed a bug for 97/98. In fact probably over fixed it and started the whole “super keeper” legend. We are better at planning these days………

CM9798 had no CD-protection so it could be played (once installed) without the CD. Was this to hook us all before the CM3 phenomenon? Did it have the desired effect for CM3?

Paul: I have no idea. Probably an Eidos thing. I think it was likely unintentional in terms of effect but at the time you wanted people playing the game by hook or crook so it worked out well.

Since I started this blog in January, over 1500 views have come from people searching the web for cm9798 – does that surprise you, given the game is 18 years old?

Oliver: Well we know that CM97/98 is acknowledged to be many peoples’ favourite version of the game. I think this is for a few reasons – firstly it was a very well-tuned version, having had a few iterations of the broad same codebase so we’d had a chance to iron out the glitches and tune it as well as we could. It just played really really well. Secondly I suspect the people looking for it are remembering the days when they played it – perhaps they have found the more recent games a little more complicated and they remember back to when things were simpler (this is also the reason we introduced Football Manager Classic – now known as Football Manager Touch)

Do you get much chance to play the game or is it all work and no play?

Oliver: I only tend to play Football Manager Touch these days since my role is one of overseeing the development of this version. I’m personally far less hands-on these days however, preferring to give some guidance but no longer coding.

Paul: I hardly have any time to play it these days sadly. Not just because of work but also two young kids, plus other interests etc and I have finally managed to get the work/life balance right in recent years. Although I do sit for hours watching AI matches play out as part of my job which is AI coder for the match engine. If I were to play it more I would go for the Touch version on tablet. And never as Everton. I find it hard to play as any team where I have too many preconceptions. Last long game I had was a couple of years ago with Las Palmas, which was great fun!

Do you have a favourite version of the CM or FM series? Either from a creative point of view or to play?

Paul: My Burnley game will always be my favourite, although some friends and I did have a spectacular hotseat game going in 93-94. I can’t exactly remember who was who but I know my friend Tim was Barnsley and had a centre half called John Cox. The man was an animal. Practically a red card every other week. Like a modern day Norman Hunter I suppose. You always remember these players. I think he was a fictional player too! In terms of my own role I am always obsessed with ( hopefully ) making each Match Engine iteration better than the last, and I am quite proud of the latest one.

FM16 is upon us – how has your role changed in developing the game now compared to when things started up?

Paul: Well I now work in a team as opposed to my own little match engine bubble. This is a good thing, mainly because my team are ace! Also in the early days I had more areas of responsibility, eg transfers, finance etc. Being able to focus on the match in recent years has been very good and also allowed me to avoid working 16 hour days year round and actually have a life outside the studio. Which is also a good thing, although it was fun back in the day!

There’s a massive FM community with some great content – it must give you great heart to see the game used for things like tactical analysis in the ‘real world’?

Oliver: The way Football Manager has begun to encroach into the real football world is really something remarkable – if we couldn’t have imagined the game itself going strong 20 years later, then we certainly couldn’t have imagined that it would become a sort of cultural reference point for football in the real world. Of course, some of this is driven by us but the fact it is taken seriously is testimony to the quality of the game and the reputation it has built up over the years.

CM & FM have made heroes out of players who in some cases cannot live up to their billing, have any such players ever spoken to you about it?

Paul: Not me personally but I am sure Miles has had these conversations

On that note, you must have been fairly excited when Ibrahima Bakayoko signed for Everton…

Paul: Weren’t we just! Such a shame he was a bit average. It happens. More success stories on the data front than not, by some distance!

Finally, where do you see the FM series heading next? Do you think there will ever be another change of the same magnitude as when CM3 was launched?

Paul: We will never undertake a complete rewrite again. We don’t need to anymore luckily, we can just replace or rework a given module. The rewrites – CM2, CM3, CM4 – all had something in common. Let’s just say they were difficult releases……

Thanks again to both of you for joining me and for providing us with hours of entertainment over the years!

Paul: You are welcome!

If you’re a fan of the series, take a look at my new book The World According to CM9798 available for purchase now!

Season 14 has taken me down a strange old path. I gave up the glitz and glamour of the Champions League to try and get Norwich promoted back to the Premier League – I don’t really have a justification for that, but it’s going reasonably well. It is not going as well for some other managers though, as I’ll explain…

Firstly though, we’ve got local bragging rights after this derby victory

Ipswich sacked Dave Basset shortly after this, I can’t say I’m all that surprised.

Somebody else out of work is my former player Graeme Tomlinson, who has lasted 5 months in management before being shown the door.

To be fair, he’s somehow made Tottenham even worse and deserves to go.

A man named Carlo Willis has taken over and “improved” them to 20th, so well done him.

We’ve sadly bowed out of the pointless cup after a decent showing at Arsenal.

We’ve faired slightly better in the FA Cup, though I credit this man for that

Yep, he’s the Batistuta re-gen. A snip at £800k. I’ve learned from the twitter advice and made him available for an extorniate price, so hopefully we can get promoted with him. The FA Cup run has seen us come up against Barmby’s Chelsea

We dominate the game at Carrow Road but can’t force a goal. The replay is a nervy affair

Zidane missing a pen aged 38 is infuriating. Damn! Chelsea are out anyway, the semi final line-up has a strange look to it.

Roy Evans will see his new club Derby take on Liverpool, who he won titles with back in the day.

The pointless cup final is set too

Well fancy that, it’s Roy vs Liverpool again. Man City blew that badly.

Palace sack Harford so there’s more managerial movement

Daish somehow gets himself another Prem job, despite Sunderland sitting in the bottom half of Division 2

Another former player moves into management! I must have taught them well.

It was all going so well but the damn big club release clause strikes again

He hardly got a game, it’s annoying. But not nearly as annoying as this on deadline day

Curse you, Bryan Robson.

£9m is a lot but why couldn’t he wait until we were promoted?

We’re looking set for the playoffs at least

With Rotchen we could have pushed for top 2 but I think that is unlikely now. Never say never though!

Over in Spain, Sevilla aren’t missing me at all

They’re on course to retain the Champions League trophy too

Semi final draw is kind for them, really.

And finally in the Premier League, Brian Little is proving to be a more than adequate replacement for David Unsworth at Liverpool

Not much between 4th and 12th it has to be said but Darlington should be way higher than 9th, and might still be.

Waddle looks set to be relegated with Burnley, maybe they’ll sack him? Wimbledon have been up and down an awful lot, whilst Leeds continue to struggle under Alvin Martin.

The remaining months of the season are set up very nicely indeed, with promotion still to play for we’ll hope to get over the loss of a star man. There’s £43m in the bank so who knows, if we do go up we could spend ourselves daft. Bye for now.

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After the excitement of Summer 2010, the 2010/11 season kicks off with managerial vacancies all over the shop. I don’t know what I want, so we’ll just see. I could end up absolutely anywhere. So what happened? Let’s find out.

After quitting Spain, I wasted no time in leaving Sevilla too

Alex Ferguson has also decided enough is enough, so the Everton job is available

The Spain job is decided really quickly, but I didn’t expect this

Well I never. The champions need a new manager. Merseyside has two vacancies. I want neither, even though I am offered both. Liverpool have to settle for poaching Brian Little off Leeds.

When you aren’t a manager, the game skips on before you can take screenshots, which is really annoying. Anyway, Leeds want me now

I’ve managed Leeds in the first blog save and I have no desire to do it again. Move along.

Everton move for one of Fergie’s former…friends?

Great times. What’s left for me? When Delia calls…

It’s a left field move, being honest the job I really want is second Division Newcastle but it’s not available and this is where I am now. They’ve just been relegated and have started this season very averagely, as you can see.

Kidderminster…

Anyway, the real world has still been going on in spite of all this. The Charity Shield kicks us off, as ever.

We get off to a winning start in the league cup, coming from behind.

I set about putting my own stamp on things, some freebies new and old

Zidane wants a meesly £700 a week which is probably a sign of what I am getting.

We’ve negotiated another round of the League Cup but the last 16 draw is harsh

So that’ll end our time in the competition I imagine.

In the league, well, we’ve actually not moved at all.

We have just beaten Gillingham 1-0 at Carrow Road though so that’s promising. Playoffs are the target.

Some more managerial silliness – the other half of my Division 3 partnership is now in the business too

Meanwhile, Roy Evans is sacked at Villa

Something possesses them to appoint Joe Kinnear

So Derby appoint Evans, the old swaperoo

Over in Spain, Sevilla have the Champions League group from hell

Tough going. They’re doing ok in the league too

Real Madrid are, somewhat hilariously, 16th, just one spot above the relegation zone. Oh my.

So to finish, here’s the Premier League. Brian Little is doing a grand job at Liverpool

David Unsworth has built an incredible side it seems. Meanwhile at the bottom…

Amazing for Swansea to make it to the Premier League from Division 3, that’d never happen in real life. Oh wait. Waddle is in bother with Burnley and Alvin Martin has ruined Leeds. Ho hum.

So join me next time where I’ll continue to tread water with Norwich and MAYBE MORE. But probably not. Bye for now.

Our first book ‘The World According to CM9798’ is out this week – for more information check out the Book tab

My time at Sevilla is coming to a close, although I haven’t told anybody that yet. I had low targets this season – win the European Super Cup & The World Club Cup, just to complete the set. As a bonus, I’ve landed the Spain job just before Argentina 2010, and the Spanish FA have arranged a series of low profile friendlies to fire us up for the fierce competition ahead. How am I getting on? Let’s have a look…

First thing on the menu was to complete qualification from my Champions League group. We have absolutely pissed it, for want of a better word. It’s a near perfect record:

A 0-0 draw with Brann in the final game is the only blemish on our record, though to be fair we had already qualified and my second string couldn’t find a way through in Norway. Oh well. The Quarter Final draw has a strange look to it

Napoli, as the Italian Champions, are a big threat, whilst Wolves are struggling to back up their success of being last season’s Premier League winners. Bayern Munich is a tough draw for me. Or is it?

We concede our first goal of the tournament but it is a mere consolation for the Germans who are brushed aside. Napoli & Wolves both go out, and Inter, who are 14th in Serie A, stand between me and another final

Things have been nowhere near as good on the domestic front, I think my team are a bit bored by it. Plus, Barcelona have returned to form in big style and I can’t get near them – they knocked us out of the Copa del Rey on away goals too.

But none of that matters – I got what I came for.

An entertaining Super Cup anyway, and the trophies are in the bag. I’ll be leaving Sevilla in the summer with the gift of the re-generation of Perez Munoz Alfonso, at least

Now that I also have International teams to worry about, it seems wise to be broken in gently with a huge game against the Faroe Islands, which is a dead rubber as we’re already qualified, a sin that cost Capello his job.

Take that. It’s a very average squad, to be quite honest, but there’s some reasons to be cheerful. The re-gen of Luis Enrique, who is still at Darlington, has a cruciate injury but will be back in April.

We should get out of our group, if nothing else.

The run up to the World Cup has seen us play Denmark and Israel, but the England game should be a better indicator of how we’ll do this summer

Back over in England, Liverpool are really going places under David Unsworth, they’ve got a league cup final to look forward to

…and an FA Cup Semi final.

Special note against to Steve Gritt who just loves the FA Cup, this is his and Hull’s 3rd consecutive FA Cup semi final as he looks to back up the famous Southport win many moons ago.

As you can see though, Liverpool are the dominant force all of a sudden, so soon after being relegated from the Premier League

Chris Waddle’s Burnley flying high too. Gerry Francis has done a really bad job at Darlington this season, it’s been a bad hangover from the end of last season. They’ll be lucky to be in Europe at all next season.

Nicky Barmby hasn’t exactly revived Chelsea in the year he has been in charge, whilst Joe Kinnear has been in charge of Derby for over 10 years now and looks in danger of a second relegation in that time. Dave Bassett is Watford manager, so their position is less of a surprise.

Finally, North East fans will be shocked to see Sunderland sacking their manager

After a playoff final defeat last season, they’ve struggled badly this time around and sit bottom of Division 1, looking odds on to join Newcastle in Division 2. Liam Daish is the man tasked with turning it around

So join us next time for the World Cup and of course the culmination to another great season. Can Sevilla retain the Champions League? Will I add the World Cup to my list of honours? Join me again soon!