Football Manager 2009 can count bulging-eyed Everton boss David Moyes among its army of addicted fans. The Liverpool club has signed an exclusive deal to use the game's player database as a virtual scouting network, prompting fears that the league will soon be overrun by free-transfer strikers named Barry Baggio.
Everton's deal with Sports Interactive gives them full access to Football Manager 2009's statistics, compiled with painstaking care by a real-life team of scouts working across 20,000 teams and 50 countries.
This is believed to include the 'hidden' statistics that are withheld from players of the game (so you get a fun surprise when the midfielder you just spent £15m on turns out to be more injury-prone than Mr Glass from Unbreakable), as well as the continually updated data as it comes in - but the details of the arrangement are not widely known.
This is an odd precedent, certainly - yet it's somehow both astonishing that this has happened and a mystery that it took someone so long to think of it. Whenever a transfer goes pear-shaped, it's customary for football wags to claim that "Arsene Wenger thought X looked useful in Championship Manager", but the game's depth of information is legendary. It's an open secret, indeed, that many real-life coaches have a healthy interest in the game's databases and, while there's no substitute for seeing a player in action, it doesn't hurt to have a well maintained dataset that gives you an idea of which of the thousands of hopefuls it's actually worth going to see.
We just hope someone keeps an eye on Mr Moyes to make sure he doesn't restart without saving after losing 3-2 to Gillingham in the semi-finals of the 2018/19 Champions League.
Via Kotaku. And here's an amusing article by the Guardian about terrible real-life players that were brilliant in Football Manager.
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Comments
Guardian CiF iL uS said: Sorry Too Much I couldnt arsed be to read itLike looks butch girly football chanting
David Price said: Actually I think theyre a little desperate and its a great idea My suspicion is that this is primarily a publicity stunt - fans of Football Manager or football in general are almost exploding with joy at this story and its going to be round the blogosphere in minutes The scouting information sure that wont hurt but this is IMHO really about doing something that looks ridiculous so that people will talk about itObviously I think Everton are desperate only in this respect Mr Moyes passion and innovation have been a breath of fresh air since the days of Walter Smith turning up to training with a bag of balls and telling the players to get on with itEr kick a soccer point - David
Nick, Manchester. said: So one minute Everton are desperate the next youre saying its a mystery why it took so long for someone to think of doing this Which would in turn imply that you think its a great ideaSo which is it
Graham Martin said: Whenever a transfer goes pear-shaped its customary for football wags to claim that Arsene Wenger thought X looked useful in Championship Manager but the games depth of information is legendary Championship Manager is one thing Arsene Wenger taking advice from WAGs is quite another