ALS contributor Mark Duell is going back in time to play the retro Championship Manager to see how well he would do as manager of Sunderland AFC. This is Season One Episode One: The Background.
How many times have we all thought there sitting, wondering, 'I could do better than that'? The joys of being an armchair manager. Yet some of us take that obsession that bit further, don't we? Well, that's in the parallel universe known as computer football management.
For me it all started in the 80s with my trusty Commodore 64. The noise of the game loading with multi coloured bars flashing constantly until the game was ready to play. Those days, games loaded really slowly like which is a comparison on how they do these days. My first ever football management game was the original Football Manager, for those old enough: it was the one with the guy with the beard on the front - Kevin Toms. Many hours were spent trying to get the Lads to the top. If a new game came out, I had to buy it and do the same thing.