Hello again. This is the third and final chapter of my Championship Manager 00/01 mini-series. Starting in the year 2000, I’ve set out to lead Millwall from Division 2 to the top of world football.
Having first made it into the Premiership, and then won every major domestic trophy, it’s now time for the endgame. I have just three seasons left in which I want to win the Champions League… and a world championship.
Continue reading “CM00/01 Revisited: A Decade At The Den – Part 3” →
Welcome back to this retro Championship Manager mini-series. For the past seven months or so, I have been managing Millwall on Championship Manager 00/01, with the challenge of leading them to English, European and world domination within just 10 seasons.
This is the second part of the trilogy. After celebrating two promotions in three seasons, can the Lions now establish themselves in the Premiership? And how long will it take for them to add some major silverware to the trophy cabinet?
Continue reading “CM00/01 Revisited: A Decade At The Den – Part 2” →
On 8 February 2001, when I was 10 years old, I bought my copy of Championship Manager: Season 00/01 from my local Woolworths in Romford. These days, it’s now a post office that doubles up as a pound shop, but I digress.
I’d already been playing Champ Man for a couple of years, but it was CM00/01 which firmly cemented my addiction to the series. It was also on CM00/01 that I played my first of MANY save games as Millwall manager. As a tactical novice with a habit for recklessly chopping and changing my squad, I somehow fluked a promotion through the Division 2 play-offs in my first season – but once we made it to Division 1, it all came crashing down.
Now two-and-a-half decades older, and a little bit wiser, I decided it was time to shine some new light through old windows. I was ready to go back to The Den once again.
On 8 February 2026, I booted up CM00/01 and began a brand new career with Millwall. My challenge was simple, but not easy. With 25 years’ worth of Championship Manager knowledge and experience under my belt, could I lead this third-tier club all the way to the top of English, European AND world football… in just TEN in-game seasons?
This is the first part of a trilogy, in which I will tell the story of my decade at The Den.
Continue reading “CM00/01 Revisited: A Decade At The Den – Part 1” →
With World Cup fever dying down, thoughts are now turning towards the start of a new league season. Soon, we’ll be watching 22 human advertising boards attack each other with set-pieces to generate more money for their American private-equity bosses, while ludicrously long and picky VAR checks create fresh content for tribalistic and terminally angry influencers.
There was a time when football was much simpler and less serious – merely the most important of the least important things. It’d be wrong to call the 1980s a more “innocent” time, given all the racism, hooliganism, and Thatcher-led demonisation of football culture that was going on during that decade. Yet it’s easy to understand why many people are still nostalgic for the days of Mitre balls, “Roy of the Rovers” comics, and truly heinous mullets.
My name is Chris, but today, you can call me Johnny Hates Jazz. I’m about to turn back the clock and check out a (fairly) new game on Steam which combines modern strategic card games with old-school football management.
So here it is… my review of NUTMEG! A Nostalgic Deckbuilding Football Manager. (Don’t worry, folks. I’ll just call it NUTMEG! from this point on.)
Continue reading “Review: NUTMEG!” →
“Open wide for some soccer!
“The Fairer World Cup Final is coming to Fuller FM! It’s all here – fast-kickin’, low-scorin’, and ties? You bet!
“You’ll see all your favourite soccer stars – like Bellingham, Bellingham II, Sanabria, and Enciso – and they’ll all be signin’ autographs!
“This match will determine once and for all which nation is the greatest on Earth – Ireland or Paraguay?”
[Clears throat] Anyway… welcome to the final chapter of the Fairer World Cup.
Over the last few weeks, I’ve used Football Manager 2024 to find out what would happen at a World Cup where players represented the weakest national teams they were available for. You can revisit all the previous chapters right here.
After four fierce Quarter Finals and two thrilling Semi Finals, we now have our Finalists. Today, we will crown the new kings of international football…
Continue reading “Fairer World Cup: THE FINAL” →
About six months have passed since I last touched Football Manager 26.
When the first game of the new FM era launched, it was a bug-ridden disaster that looked like the debut project of a single coder in their bedroom, rather than the latest chapter of a Triple-A studio’s 34-year dynasty. Unsurprisingly, I’ve been focussing on other games during this cycle.
But now, for the first time in ages, there’s a sign of hope for FM26. A big new update came out last week – bringing with it international management, and a bespoke [wink] World Cup game mode. So I reinstalled the demo to see if this game deserves another chance at glory… or if it should be left in the departure lounge like Phil Foden.
Continue reading “International Management: The Last Word on FM26” →
We’re now at the business end of the Fairer World Cup, with just eight teams remaining in the hunt to lift the trophy in Atlanta on 19 July.
Last time out, it was the Last 16. We said a fond farewell to plucky underdogs Thailand… and a rather less fonder farewell to England, who were never any better than mediocre at this tournament. At least some things never change.
But what about the eight teams who have survived? In today’s chapter, we will whittle them down to just two, with the Quarter Finals to be followed immediately by the Semi Finals. Can Argentina move a step closer towards retaining their title, or will a new champion be crowned?
Continue reading “Fairer World Cup: Quarter Finals & Semi Finals” →
Things are now really beginning to heat up at the Fairer World Cup, where we are down to the Last 16.
Last time out, Round 2 concluded with some thrilling comebacks, a couple of costly red cards, and the ominous resurgence of a certain Nordic robot. Oh yeah, and England did their usual England thing of coasting through in second gear.
Our remaining teams have played four matches so far in North America, and the eventual champions will have to win another four. Now it’s time to see who are the real contenders for the title…
Continue reading “Fairer World Cup: Last 16” →
The knockout rounds of the Fairer World Cup have begun, and we’re getting closer to finding out who would be crowned world champions if more countries could select their best players.
Round 2 kicked off in the previous chapter, with plenty of late drama and penalty shoot-outs galore. In completely unrelated news, American sports fans have now stopped caring about soccer again.
If you’re still captivated by all the action, I’ve got eight more thrilling matches in store… well, seven thrilling matches, and Costa Rica vs England. We’ll also see the red mist descend for the first time in this tournament!
Continue reading “Fairer World Cup: Round 2, Part 2” →
We have reached the knockout stages of the Fairer World Cup – the tournament where players represented the weakest national teams they are eligible for.
Now that the Group Stage has concluded, several world-class superstars – like Paulo Dybala, N’Golo Kanté, Virgil van Dijk and Ben Brereton Díaz – have already left the tournament and returned to their clubs. Of course, others like Kylian Mbappé never even made it to North America, so they’ll at least be grateful that they got the chance.
So now we’re down to the last 32. No more worrying about 3rd-place permutations or using quantum computers to figure out who your next opponent will be. The path to the Final has now been clearly mapped out – and from hereon in, if you lose just one match, you must turn around and go home. (Then again, your opponents might be disqualified, and you might be given another chance to go all the way, like Luton Town in the EFL Trophy.)
The first knockout round – Round 2 – will be split across two separate posts. In this chapter, the three co-hosts all resume their World Cup campaigns, along with Brazil, Jamaica and the Republic of Ireland.
Continue reading “Fairer World Cup: Round 2, Part 1” →
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