Say Goodbye to Outside

If you are male you probably know that the latest incarnation of Championship / Football Manager has been recently released. I’m sure we’ve all enjoyed (or “wasted” according to girls) many an hour in front of the classic title in one form or another over the years, but it seems that there might be a more serious use for the encyclopedic level of knowledge contained in that magic database.

Everton have done a deal this week with the makers of the bestselling game to get an early look at their unbelievable register of 370,000 players worldwide. Football Manager's scouting team is apparently the largest in the world (1000 scouts in 50 countries monitoring 20,000 teams), and the footballers featured from junior level upwards are meticulously researched and rated, so from now on Everton will be a step ahead in the race to find the next Cristiano Ronaldo. Previous highly-rated youngsters on the game included a couple of teenagers you might’ve heard of – Wayne Rooney and Lionel Messi.

So why have no other teams thought of doing this before you might ask. Well they’ve probably inquired with no avail, but surprisingly one of the game’s creators, Paul Collyer, is actually an Everton fan. He said: “The database is the most extensive scouting network in football so Everton FC is making a top signing.” Get it? He said: “top signing,” talking about the game, but also the opportunity to sign players, so it works on two levels. Ha ha ha ha ha, oh Mr Collyer you slay me!

Anyway, no article about Football Manager can be complete without this fact however: the game has now been cited in 35 divorce cases nationwide. Amazing.