The greatest football management game since it’s creation has returned in the form of Football Manager 2007. The excitement levels grew and grew until the day of it’s release and I was not disappointed. The game lived up to all of it’s incredibly high standards and once again shows why it is unrivalled in being the greatest football management game.

Football Manager 2007's primary success is its ability to feel real. The most important factor to all of the games in the series is that results never appear too random. Sure, you get a few dodgy scores, but by and by the better teams win games. I took control of my beloved Sunderland and began the season by losing the first four games. I never once expected an easy rise, especially with real-life circumstances not at their best. Worried that I may lose my job as Sunderland’s main man, I studied the previous matches to see what exactly had gone wrong. After a short bit of statistical analysis I’d narrowed the problem down to the fact that my strikers were not getting fed the service they craved while my back four needed a serious make over. A few £50,000 and loan signings later and I’d managed to steady the ship. After a topsy-turvy start up until Christmas, things started to pick up and I sit 4 th at the time of writing this.

Football Manager is simple. The basic formula works now as well as it did 10 years ago. You take control of any team you like from a choice of hundreds (as low as the Vauxhall North/South divisions in England) and your task is to fulfil the hopes of the board and supporters and maybe win a few trophies along the way. You buy and sell players and staff based on their in-game stats, you work out the most suitable tactic and then you launch simulated games which you have no direct control over to see if your plan worked. Since the first Championship Manager these have been the ingredients, and the resulting product has always been far tastier than any other football management game.

You probably already know how great it is so I’ll just tell you what’s new.

Take team talks for example: they've been ramped up slightly so you can now dish them out before the game as well as at half time and full time. More useful still is the feedback provided for individual player's reactions, meaning you can determine how to approach pep talks in the future depending on whether they motivated, upset or perhaps not even paying attention at all!

The transfer aspect of the game benefits from a brush up too, with the option to ask new signings to recommend former club or international teammates a particularly nice idea. And just like real life you must exercise caution, because while they might be your greatest signing yet, the recommendation might just be a favour for a mate who's trying to ditch his old team.

Elsewhere, the new feeder club feature enables large clubs to team up with smaller sides and develop players. So, if you're managing a heavyweight club like Chelsea, you get first refusal on players coming through, while the club has the opportunity to take youth and reserve players on loan from their sugar daddy side. The disadvantage is you won't be able to hang onto any really good players you bring through yourself. There's much more involvement now at board level too, with takeovers occurring, embargos being placed on transfer activity and new boards wanting to bring in their own management, putting more pressure on you to deliver results.

Overall it is one game that you can’t afford to miss out on. Football Manager 2007 is the same as any other year, absolutely fantastic.

James Henderson