My own memories of the sequel are mainly of hot-seat multiplayer, either with my Dad or my friend Peter (more on which here).

Championship Manager 2 would follow up on this theme, with different versions allowing players to manage in various European leagues, although only one league could be run at a time. Having won everything with Leeds, we moved to Crewe Alexandra in Division 3 to try and do it all again, at which point I think my interest started to wane.Īside from a couple of data disks, updating the teams and stats, there was also Championship Manager Italia, which gave players the chance to manage in Serie A (the choice of the Italian league was possible due to the success of Channel 4’s Football Italia programme in the early-mid 90s). Meanwhile Chris Bart -Williams was a high profile disappointment and cultivated a fear of big money signings that remained a feature of my Dad’s approach over the years. There was a random element to the stats each time, so he isn’t that good at heading here.Ĭhassot was replaced by Paul Devlin, a journeyman (and not particularly tall) midfielder in real life but a goalscoring colossus for our Leeds team.

To be fair, it was more unusual to have non-native players in the early nineties: English sides normally just had one per team as a kind of vaguely exotic novelty ( “interest you in this Andrea Silenzi sir? He’s built like a traditional English centre forward but, you know, Italian and that.”) Swiss striker Frédéric Chassot was that man in the early days, signed from the single list of ‘Foreign Players’ (as opposed to fully functional teams and leagues) available in this version. Despite the real names, it wasn’t desperately exciting to look at, and only my Dad’s assurances that it was considered the most authentic football management game of the time persuaded me to give it a second look.Īs co-managers of Leeds United, we achieved initial success through the adoption of long ball tactics (much like the real-life team) and the goalscoring exploits of a prolific target man. They were added in the 1993 update, which was my earliest experience of the series. Despite never quite hitting the mad 20-season, multiple-Champions-League-winning heights of many hardcore players, I’ve certainly fallen victim to its time-sucking charms on numerous occasions over the years, so here are some memories of my own.Īlthough detailed research and accuracy soon became a hallmark feature, the original Championship Manager, released in September 1992, didn’t actually feature real player names. I didn’t remember this myself, of course, it was in The Guardian, along with this collection of stories from fans of the series. It’s been 25 years since the original Championship Manager came out.

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