Author: Chris Fuller

CM3 Revisited: Cult Icons

Published on by Chris Fuller

Championship Manager 3 celebrates its 25th birthday later this month. In lieu of baking a cake, I thought I’d take the opportunity to celebrate some cult players who would often develop into world-beaters.

I’ve come up with a list of 15 players in the CM3 database – young and, er, not-so-young – and have looked at where their careers went after the turn of the millennium.

I’m looking for cult icons, so I will not be including players like Pablo Aimar and Javier Saviola who enjoyed at least some real-life superstardom. I also won’t be revisiting anyone that I’ve already covered on my lists of Championship Manager 99/00 icons (Part 1 and Part 2). Continue reading “CM3 Revisited: Cult Icons” →

Football Manager (And Content Creation) Burnout

Published on by Chris Fuller

Hello, guys. Christopher here. This is not a post I wanted to write, but in light of recent events, there are some things I have to get off my chest.

I want to talk about feeling burnt out – both with playing Football Manager, and with creating content about Football Manager. But first, it’s time to answer a question I’m sure a few of you will be asking… Continue reading “Football Manager (And Content Creation) Burnout” →

The Cracovian Chronicles: Chapter 2

Published on by Chris Fuller

“Witamy spowrotem” to my new Football Manager 2024 series in Poland. Kamila Deyna is about to take charge of her first league matches as manager of Wieczysta Kraków. You can read more about the club in the prologue, and you can meet the squad in Chapter 1.

Today’s chapter will take us through the first four months of the 2023/2024 III Liga season. Wieczysta are expected to win their group at a canter… but if you’ve read any of my previous FM stories, you’ll know that things are never quite that straightforward! Continue reading “The Cracovian Chronicles: Chapter 2” →

The Cracovian Chronicles: Chapter 1

Published on by Chris Fuller

After months of planning, at long last, it is time to kick off my new Football Manager 2024 story on Fuller FM!

It’s been a while since I went off the beaten track and managed an obscure lower-league club on FM. For this challenge, I will start off all the way down in Poland’s fourth division with Wieczysta Kraków. If you want to learn more about the club and why I chose them, please take some time to read the prologue.

“The Cracovian Chronicles” will follow the adventures of sisters Kamila and Joanna Deyna as they begin their coaching careers at their childhood club. Where will the journey take them, and how far can they take Wieczysta? Continue reading “The Cracovian Chronicles: Chapter 1” →

The Cracovian Chronicles: Prologue

Published on by Chris Fuller

“Dzień dobry”, and “witam” to the start of a new Football Manager 2024 series here on Fuller FM!

After a lengthy break, I am refreshed and raring to go for a new challenge that will hopefully last me for the rest of FM24’s life cycle. This challenge has taken me to Poland – the home of Robert Lewandowski, Marie Curie, The Witcher, and Nigel Farage’s plumber (probably).

“The Cracovian Chronicles” will follow the story of two sisters from Kraków as they set out to lead their local football club to glory. But before we meet them and their club, let’s have a closer look at their home city… Continue reading “The Cracovian Chronicles: Prologue” →

CM3 Revisited: Like Father, Like Son

Published on by Chris Fuller

Championship Manager 3 was released in March 1999 – almost 25 years ago – and marked the start of a new generation for the CM series.

CM3 was also the first football management game I ever played, when I was about 8 or 9 years old. Over the coming months, I will revisit this game in various articles, along with a new career story that will begin very soon.

For the first installment, I have found 17 players who are currently playing for Premier League clubs, and whose fathers were themselves players on the CM3 database a quarter-century ago. I’ve taken screenshots of the dads on CM3 – and their lads on Football Manager 2024 – and written a little bit about their careers.

I’ve already done something like this before, when I revisited Championship Manager 99/00 about four years ago. Expect to see a few familiar faces from the past, along with some contemporary stars who’ve already outstripped their fathers’ achievements. Continue reading “CM3 Revisited: Like Father, Like Son” →

Retro Review: Championship Manager 2010

Published on by Chris Fuller

Ladies and gentlemen, it’s Retro Review time again!

This year marks the 25th anniversary of me playing Championship Manager for the first time. It was back in 1999 that I first discovered Championship Manager 3 – the game that started a lifelong addiction for me.

I will revisit CM3 in more detail later this year. Today, though, I will fast-forward a decade to 2009, when the Championship Manager franchise was on the decline. Could Eidos really make a good game without Sports Interactive?

This is Championship Manager 2010. Continue reading “Retro Review: Championship Manager 2010” →

Breaking FM: Anger Management

Published on by Chris Fuller

Embed from Getty Images

Welcome back to Fuller FM. I’ll be starting a new Football Manager 2024 story in the coming weeks – but in the meantime, I’ve got something a bit different to tide you over.

Breaking FM is my occasional mini-series where I take Football Manager to the extreme and see how the game handles ridiculous scenarios. I ran my first experiment on FM23 last spring, when I took an all-star Dagenham & Redbridge team through the longest season possible in English football – 100 matches in barely 11 months. You can read Part 1 and Part 2 to see how that unfolded.

Only about seven people read the first Breaking FM, but I enjoyed making it, and I always wanted to come back to it on FM24 with another cunning plan.

So now it’s time for some anger management… literally. Today, I will channel my inner José Mourinho – and become the angriest, harshest, intolerant, most violent and most downright dislikeable manager football has ever seen! How far can I go before I lose the dressing room? Continue reading “Breaking FM: Anger Management” →

Retro Review: Championship Soccer

Published on by Chris Fuller

Welcome back to this occasional series on Fuller FM, where I look back at a football management PC game from years gone by. I did not write any retro reviews in 2023, but I’m starting off 2024 with another journey back through time.

The game I will be looking at is perhaps the most obscure one I’ve reviewed so far. This shareware title had a small but devoted following when it first came out just over 20 years ago, but has now seemingly disappeared into obscurity.

Well, how about we revisit it now – and perhaps reintroduce it to a new generation of fans? From Germany, this is Andreas Osswald’s Championship Soccer. Continue reading “Retro Review: Championship Soccer” →

My thoughts on Football Manager 2024

Published on by Chris Fuller

Football Manager 2024 has been out for close to two months now, and this game cycle is well and truly in full swing.

Regular Fuller FM readers may remember back in April that I wrote a pretty brutal review of Football Manager 2023 – canning its lack of innovation, chaotic match engine, and pretty much everything else. It was clear that a lot more would be expected from FM24, especially when Sports Interactive labelled it “a love letter to football” and “the last of its kind”.

This will be the final version of Football Manager before the series enters an exciting new chapter, but how is it looking right now? After over 100 hours of playing the game, I feel that now’s a good time to deliver my thoughts on FM24… Continue reading “My thoughts on Football Manager 2024” →