Don't buy this game. No, seriously, I mean it - don't buy it! I'm only saying this because I'm helping you out, "but why?!" I hear you cry. This is why; it's the summer, you should be outside in the sun with your friends, drinking beer and not sleeping for while. You should not be stuck indoors for days at a time, letting piles of washing and plates pile up in your house while you just play your way through the many different leagues of Footy Manager.

I've been playing this game for almost a decade now and with every incarnation I keep thinking, "how can they make this game any better?!" and every year they do!

I bought FM2007 on release, I was so excited, I played my full strength Manchester City side against a Vietnamese pub team and lost 9-0, which after a certain recent 8-1 defeat to Middlesbrough in the real world, it looks as though FM is quite accurate... But that mauling to Ho-Chi Min United, or whatever they were called, put me off buying FM2008 until I saw it at 20 in a well known high street music store.

Best 20 I've ever spent. Football Manager 2008 has everything, it's still hugely customisable and you can replace the default club images with the actual logos of club/country and leagues. Tactically the game is harder, you -need- to watch the game, you can't just go on holiday and hope to win, you have to keep an eye on any weaknesses in your team and exploit the weaknesses in your oppositions defence.

It's such a good game though, the demoralising defeat to the Vietnamese pub team has finally been confined to memory much like Manchester City's relegation into Division 2 in the late 1990's. It has the "just one more match" factor and you realise it's now 7am, you've got work in 5minutes and you've been wearing the same boxers for four days running and you've ate nothing but bread dipped in anything runnier than bread, all for the sake of three points.

If you've liked the other Football Manager, formerly Championship Manager, games of the past then you'll love this one. Apart from the fact your girlfriend will leave you, you'll lose your job and you better hope your neighbours will get used seeing you wandering around looking confused muttering football tactics and drawing on yourself trying to remember that wunderkind 12yr old you bought for a pound.

20 goes a long way in destroying someone's life.

It's hard to get involved in at first, tactically it's a little over-whelming. You've got training to think of, and then interacting with your players. So it is a little daunting, just don't let your early results scar you for life, it can be traumatising but winning the Premier ship is totally worth it