Reviews – Fuller FM

Review: NUTMEG!

Published on 15 July 202614 July 2026 by Chris FullerLeave a comment

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.)

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Review: Bang Average Football

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

Here’s another non-Football Manager football manager game review… because apparently that’s all I write about on here anymore!

Ah, but I’ve been wanting to check this title out for a while now. If you’re fed up of ultra-realistic simulations with less soul than a Reform UK party conference, or AAA games that turn your kids into broke gambling addicts, you’ll probably find this just as refreshing as I did.

Don’t judge a book by its cover. This is Bang Average Football.

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Review: SEGA Football Club Champions

Published on 25 February 20267 July 2026 by Chris FullerLeave a comment

Sayyy-gahhh!

Last month, SEGA officially released their newest multi-platform football management game. Sadly, it’s not a rebuilt, reskinned Football Manager 26 that anyone born before the year 2000 might actually enjoy. Though this new game is officially “powered by Football Manager”, it isn’t even close to the FM experience.

Having tried the new game out over the past few weeks, I’m now ready to give my thoughts. Is it a fresh take on the genre – even an FM killer? Or is it “the worst football manager game of all-time”, as some have said?

Here is my honest review of SEGA Football Club Champions.

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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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My thoughts on Football Manager 26

Published on 14 November 20257 July 2026 by Chris FullerLeave a comment

After the longest wait, Football Manager 26 is finally here… but is it any good?

That’s a question many people have already answered with an emphatic “no”. FM26 came out on 4 November to unprecedentedly negative reviews on Steam, with a 27% approval rating as I write this. Even the professional gaming critics who consistently heap praise on FM have been much more divided this time around.

So it was with some trepidation – and a little excitement – that I installed the FM26 demo to try out the new game for the first time. I’ve spent half a season managing Walsall in EFL League Two, while also dabbling around with Arsenal in the Women’s Super League.

Is FM26 a massive step forward that will bring the game to a wider audience? Is it a raging dumpster fire that risks the entire future of the Football Manager franchise? Or is the answer somewhere in between? Here are my thoughts…

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Review: Soccer Manager 2026

Published on 5 November 20257 July 2026 by Chris FullerLeave a comment

It’s the game everyone has been talking about in recent weeks… and, oh boy, hasn’t it been divisive?

An experienced team of British developers have been working on their latest football management simulation for years – and the reception has been quite mixed. Some people think the new graphics engine is a huge step forward. Others think the devs have completely sold out to the mobile market, and that they only want to grab your money instead of giving you the full managerial experience.

Well, folks. I’m sure you’ve been waiting to read my opinions on this… so here they are.

This is my review for Soccer Manager 2026.

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Retro Review: Premier Manager Ninety Nine

Published on 20 August 20257 July 2026 by Chris Fuller3 Comments

Embed from Getty Images

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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Review: FIFA Manager 2025

Published on 26 March 20257 July 2026 by Chris Fuller

It’s March 2025, and after months of eager anticipation, FM25 has finally been released to the public! Well… kind of.

Of course, Football Manager 25 is dead and buried, leaving a huge gap in the market for this season. Could that gap be filled by one of Sports Interactive’s old rivals?

Although EA Sports’ FIFA Manager series was officially cancelled in 2013, the franchise has been kept alive by a devoted community of fans and creators who have been making their own updated databases for the past decade. So today, I will be checking out the 2024/2025 “season update” to see if it’s a worthy replacement for FM25.

This is my review of FIFA Manager 2025.

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