Retro – Fuller FM

25 Years: A Championship Manager 01/02 Story

Published on 12 October 202624 September 2026 by Chris FullerLeave a comment

Championship Manager: Season 01/02 was released 25 years ago today.

The final game of the classic CM3 era, this was also the last version before Sports Interactive made the big leap towards adding a 2D match engine. For many people, it offers the perfect balance between playability and depth – not too shallow, not too much pointless fluff.

CM01/02 remains hugely popular to this day – getting regular data updates, and even new patches that add more leagues and new tournament formats.

Oddly enough, I never really got into CM01/02 – instead preferring to stick with its predecessors Championship Manager: Season 00/01 and Championship Manager: Season 99/00. Then, in the summer of 2021, I decided to write a new Championship Manager story, titled “25 Years”.

Starting at Dagenham & Redbridge in the Conference, I would chronicle my virtual manager’s journey over the course of 25 years – from July 2001 up until the end of the 2025/2026 season. As the story progressed, I would also include regular updates from the wider game world, as well as references to real-life events – from the September 11 attacks, right up to the rise and fall (and rise again) of a certain tangerine man-baby.

I ran the game on a fully-patched copy of CM01/02, but with some extra user-made patches to improve long-term playability. I used a heavily edited version of the Luessenhoff database, which expanded the database to over 100,000 players – including a 14-year-old Lionel Messi in Barcelona’s C team.

I began posting my story on the SI forums back in October 2021 and eventually completed it in July of this year. This adventure took in five clubs, over 1,200 competitive matches, and more tantrums and overpowered goalkeepers than any sane football manager could handle.

Now that the story is finished, I am ready to share it with you in its full glory. I have uploaded the story as six separate PDF files, all of which are completely free to download. The main story is split into five ‘parts’ consisting of five seasons apiece, and the final part is an epilogue, which also includes various facts, statistics, and biographies of the main players.

To celebrate this story’s official induction into the Fuller FM archives, I have posted the prologue below. If you want to read more, you can find links to the full 1,874-page story underneath that.

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CM00/01 Revisited: A Decade At The Den – Part 3

Published on 11 September 202610 September 2026 by Chris FullerLeave a comment

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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.

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CM00/01 Revisited: A Decade At The Den – Part 2

Published on 7 September 20266 September 2026 by Chris FullerLeave a comment

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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?

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CM00/01 Revisited: A Decade At The Den – Part 1

Published on 3 September 20262 September 2026 by Chris FullerLeave a comment

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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.

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Retro Review: Championship Manager 2008

Published on 11 February 20267 July 2026 by Chris FullerLeave a comment

Is this thing still on?

Hey, folks. It’s been a while. Anyway, here’s another Fuller FM ‘Retro Review’ – and this one is kind of a special request.

Today, we shall be going back to the innocent heady days of 2007, when a war-mongering Republican was in the White House, a team from the Midlands was hopelessly stinking out the Premier League, and Football Manager was an unplayable mess. Good times.

So sit back and enjoy this retrospective review of Championship Manager 2008…

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Retro Review: SoccerCards

Published on 14 January 20267 July 2026 by Chris FullerLeave a comment

Here we go again with another Retro Review on Fuller FM – and it’s time for something a bit different.

In the past, I’ve tended to focus strictly on football management games. Nowadays, however, I’m much happier to broaden my horizons and cover any football-related PC game that catches my eye. (This does not include action games where you control the players, so no FIFA or Pro Evolution Soccer reviews. Sorry.)

The game I’m going to discuss today is the reason why I’ve decided to relax the rules the little bit. It’s not really a management game, but its unique card-based gameplay had me hooked for weeks when I was a teenager. And while it was a fairly popular freeware game when it was originally released in the mid-2000s, it now seems to have been largely forgotten.

Well… it’s time to change that! It’s time to (re)introduce you to the pleasure of SoccerCards!

No, you idiot. I’m not talking about those!

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Retro Review: Premier Manager Ninety Nine

Published on 20 August 20257 July 2026 by Chris Fuller3 Comments

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I moved into my new home one year ago today… and what better way to celebrate my first anniversary at New Fuller FM HQ, than with another of my Retro Reviews?

As a computer nerd with a particular fondness for the 90s, I enjoy revisiting old football management games and seeing if they can still hold up today. The game I’ll be looking at today has been on my shortlist of a very long time, so I’m excited to finally tick it off.

I’ll tell you, honestly, I will LOVE IT if we play Premier Manager: Ninety Nine… LOVE IT.

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Retro Review: Simsoc 6

Published on 30 April 20257 July 2026 by Chris Fuller1 Comment

It’s time for another retro review of a football management game from years gone by. This one’s a bit obscure… but if you know it, you KNOW it.

The late 1990s was a golden age for independent shareware or freeware games – titles often made by nerdy (and usually amateur) programmers in their homes rather than by big studios. They might not have had as much substance or polish as those expensive major releases, but they could still be enjoyed by early online gamers for little or no cost.

Today, I’m looking at a freeware Windows game that I would describe as “an entry-level Championship Manager”. If you want a less intense experience than CM or Football Manager, with a healthy dose of nostalgia, this might be just what you’re after.

So, without further ado, let’s check out Simsoc 6.

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Retro Review: Lords of Football

Published on 26 February 20257 July 2026 by Chris Fuller

We might have to wait until next season for a new Football Manager, but that doesn’t mean there’s a shortage of football games on the Steam storefront.

A few weeks ago, I looked at a bare-bones Championship Manager clone that didn’t stray too far from the standard formula. The game I’ll be reviewing today is… well, let’s just say it’s VERY different.

For this Retro Review, I’m going back to the year 2013 (i.e. the last time Manchester United were any good) to find out what happened when some Italians decided to make their own FM… with blackjack, and hookers. Literally.

This is Lords of Football.

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Retro Review: Sven-Göran Eriksson’s World Manager

Published on 5 February 20257 July 2026 by Chris Fuller

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It’s time for another of my Fuller FM retro reviews… and today’s review is particularly poignant.

Sven-Göran Eriksson passed away in August last year at the age of 76, after an illustrious managerial career with the likes of Benfica, Sampdoria, Lazio and (ahem) Leicester City. He was also the first – and, to date, best – foreign-born manager of the England men’s national team, leading the Three Lions to three consecutive tournament Quarter Finals.

I’m publishing this post on what would have been the ice-cool Swede’s 77th birthday. To mark the occasion, I’ll be playing a somewhat obscure football management game from 2002 which bears his name.

This is Sven-Göran Eriksson’s World Manager.

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