It starts as a funnel effect – beginning broadly, but eventually putting the focus on minor details. Select three countries to begin with, and a varying level of minimum competitions to work with in each nation. From there, a massive database of thousands of football figures is available, the size of which can be determined depending on your computer’s specifications. No matter what you choose, and at what capacity you play, there is still going to be unlimited hours of management mayhem at your disposal.
It’s quite a feat, and an immediate indication of depth, when considering the number of teams available for management. Most teams at varying levels of competition are represented (Queensland Roar FTW), and you can achieve as deep an experience with absolutely any country or league. Your chosen club’s directors will welcome you, but from the initial emails and notices it may or may not give a broad direction with which to go with the club, and what areas of concern need to be addressed. During your work, the board page will give general hints and tips – whether they are satisfied with current financial commitments, and the team’s prospects regarding an upcoming fixture.
Bob Smith is one charismatic guy.
So, where to go from here? Pretty much every aspect of management ever conceived has been placed in FM 2007. All player statistics are displayed on individual pages, and you’ll quickly recognise the stars from the sleepers. Of course, chopping and changing the roster is a natural form of progression, and all employees who might work for a club are able to be scrutinised for possible hiring or firing. You’ll assign training schedules, the correct type of training for the differing traits of various players, and study the possibility of scrapping an avenue of advancement altogether.
The changing of details occurs within a stationary time frame, and the results of said changes will reveal themselves after progressing through the dates. For example, your club may need to scout a new player, organise some high-end striker training, finance a new coach and speak to the media about upcoming events. When all changes are satisfactory, you then hit continue to progress through the days and discover what effect the previous changes have had upon the club’s progress. It can lead to a bit of trial and error, but it’s all so incredibly deep, and so many changes must be made at all times, that any repetitive feeling will be quickly lost.
Football players have rather exuberant salaries, and budget is an aspect of FM 2007 that must be kept under control. An initial transfer and wage budget is allocated, and at all times a profit and loss statement is available, as well as remaining budget figures for the season. It’s extremely complex, and requires a cool and calm mind to comprehend all the aspects to be adjusted. Of course, one can ignore a myriad of options while progressing, but that may compromise your team’s success, and that’s not a very good management practice, now is it?
Take that, Scotland's knowledge level!
A new addition to the series is the concept of the feeder system. This works almost as a buddy system, as a bigger and wealthier club creates an affiliation with a smaller club to give it much needed recognition and support. From your management position, you can either be the smaller club receiving higher support, or the bigger club helping someone else out. Benefits for mini-teams range from scoring friendly matches to bring some income to the club, and organising loan deals from the piggy bank of the large club. The large clubs will also receive merchandising and player training benefits by offloading various resources (both player and monetary) into the smaller club.
Shying away from a complete “Microsoft Office” look, FM sports a colourful interface - inviting and suitably organised to get started. A quick links menu is presented on the left of the screen, and the details of each sub-category are displayed in the main window. As far as abandoning technical graphical achievement in favour of functional brilliance goes, FM 2007 holds up rather well. Directories are located along the side, top and bottom of the screen, but sometimes it's unclear about which actual button, of the many available, is required to proceed to the next step. The problem is that there's so many menus and submenus this is almost unavoidable.
The problem with FM 2007 is that it is a complete management simulation title. This will be heaven to many enthusiastic footballers, but those after a combination of gameplay won’t find it here. For example, many real-time sports games nowadays contain management modes – while not as deep as what FM 2007 achieves, it’s usually a credible system and adds longevity to an already infinite gameplay system (considering multiplayer benefits). FM 2007 does what it does well, but very soon many sports titles will be doing exactly that, and much more.
Tell Gallen he's fired.
The actual games are represented by little numbered and coloured dots running about the screen, with text commentary providing various updates as play progresses. You can even give team talks beforehand, to put pressure or give confidence to your captain or any player. It sounds pretty lousy, with general cheering noises and sound effects, but again this is all about the management, not providing an immersive stadium experience.
To break it down easily – fans of football who wish to achieve a greater level of interaction with the world game can do no wrong. On the next level we have football enthusiasts, who enjoy following the events of any worthy league. If that group wanted to try their hand at becoming more knowledgeable about the game or even spend some hours manipulating their virtual sport idols, FM 2007 is probably the best spot to begin. Of course, for those uninterested in football, just stay away, because this is a serious business. No excessive bells and whistles, no fancy high-res graphics – pure management simulation, and it does the job extremely well.
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