Football Manager is an awful, awful thing. I have been playing this game, and other incarnations (Championship Manager) of it since 1994! That’s now 14 years of my life! I’ve watched it grow into one of the most grippingly addictive games I’ve ever played. It gives you the chance to take control of your favourite football team. You can choose tactics, talk to the media and players, buy and sell players and most importantly, you have the chance to lead your team to glory.
Football manager currently features numerous leagues from around the world of which you can manage any of the major teams in the same way. In the past I have taken great joy at managing Japanese football teams in the game. I think the interest for me in that league started when Gary Lineker moved to Nagoya Grampus Eight in 1992. Since then, I have always had one eye on my hometown team of Southampton FC and the other on the J League.
However, to my disgust and for whatever licensing reasons, the J League has been missing from the most recent few editions of the game. I missed managing in Japan so much that I decided to add all of the missing Japanese players to the Database myself! I did this for the 2007 version of the game, and it went very well and was received well by those who used it.
Along came the 2008 version of the game, and again, no sign of the J League. So here I am again, researching and adding the Japanese based players and coaches one at a time. I must be mad. (My long suffering Girlfriend agrees!)
Happy birthday mate