Ever since I was a young meerkat, I’ve taken to play football management sims. Down the years these have brought entertainment, stress, heartache and joy. I go through periods where I step away from them, because they can prove greatly aggravating, but I eventually end up returning to the fray, so to speak. I certainly have issues with some of the mechanics of these games, which have a tendancy to draw me out of my immersion, but I find the pull hard to resist for long.
It is also fair to say that some sims are easier to master than others. The original Ultimate Soccer Manager (which featured the earliest years of the Premier League) was so easy that I won 10 consecutive league titles, and paired those with nine consecutive Champions League titles. It was in many respects too easy.
Ultimate Soccer Manager 98/99 edition was a more detailed game, and somewhat more tricky, which meant success was more satisfying. I have some fond memories of guiding my Liverpool team to eight league titles across a spell of 12 or 13 seasons, including a run of five consecutive titles, with three Champions League titles woven into that run.
Flash forward a few years, and I would get into the Football Manager franchise, which has since become the premier (heh) franchise for this sort of sim. A lot of developers working on it moved over from the popular Championship Manager series, and the franchise has seen regular releases for two decades. I enjoyed some success at FM07, albeit with added players, as I aimed to recreate the team that had proven so good on USM 98/99. I then hit a few frustrating roadblocks, until FM12.
I don’t know what it was about FM12, but here, I found something of a sweet spot. With the right tactics (which I freely confess to having downloaded rather than created), and by signing and developing the right players, I was able to enjoy a lengthy and successful managerial career, the likes of which I have not come close to repeating, despite various efforts. Thanks to the Wayback Machine, I can reshare this story, and perhaps add a few additional touches along the way. Here is how Ben Berwick became a legend!
Part One: Prepping, and Winning
Part Three: Bowing Out and Moving On