Blogs

We all love Football Manager, but this trend verges upon insulting

|
Image for We all love Football Manager, but this trend verges upon insulting

Cherno Samba

Question; why is July 21st 2015 such an important date for football?

I’ll give you a hint, it’s not because it happens to be the birthday of Liam Ridgewell. In actual fact, it is the date from this very year that the great Cherno Samba finally hung up his prolific boots. Now, for those of you who aren’t savvy to this particular legend and are currently scanning his Wikipedia page, 15 senior goals in 52 appearances across a ten year senior career won’t seem very impressive. “Why is this clown talking about a man whose only prolific spell came ten years ago for Malaga B?” I hear you say.

You would be right to question this as having a place on such an upstanding football website. However, those who do remember the name will know that my affection for this particular journeyman is founded from perhaps the greatest football game ever – Championship Manager 01/02. Where a prime Zinedine Zidane was always a waste of money and kept out of my side by the magic man Mark Kerr, a steal at 500k from Falkirk.

The reason I mention this isn’t only out of a misguided nostalgia for my youth spent in a darkened room, clicking away in front of a clunky old computer screen, but because of the recent utilisation of Football Manager stats in mainstream media.

Now, I have great respect for the extensive database accrued by Sports Interactive as do many in the game – Everton are one of many clubs who use the resource. Dedication to the level of 1300 scouts compiling information on 600,000 players and staff should not be sniffed at. What I do take issue with, however, is the bland presentation of numbers to educate the wider footballing public on players.

How can one quantify the magic of Lionel Messi twisting a defender’s legs sideways by a simple drop of the shoulder? Or the hilarity of a John Obi Mikel strike from distance? Surely not with any real certainty. Yet the presentation of virtual stats as fact has become a part of esteemed football resources such as Sky Sports News and the BBC sport website, even to the point that self styled football manager experts are writing articles about who should be purchased by real clubs, for real millions of real pounds. This is not only superfluous to the average football fan, but also slightly insulting. The lifeblood of football is opinion, gathered through the obsessive watching of our favourite game. Real fans, real opinions, real debates.

As I stated before, I respect the database, the scouts have done a fantastic job and showed a real dedication to authenticity.  As a cursory overview, I certainly cannot think of a more useful system. It’s limitations though, are obvious to any discerning fan. I’m sure they have their reasons but award Chelsea’s Oscar with a greater dribbling stat than team-mate Pedro, for instance, has to be an oversight.

Matches are still 90 minutes long but the sport is becoming increasingly short form as more and more match days are added to the calendar. It is now almost possible to watch a different match every day of the year.  Heaven for those who are able to dedicate their entire lives to this pursuit, but most cannot. So we are in the era of endless highlight shows and YouTube compilations with their horrendous music choices. It’s the price we must pay to get our fix – although having to withstand yet more dubstep whilst trying to check out the newest Swedish wonderkid is starting to seem a little too pricey even for the die-hard fan.

Maybe the example of Samba is an extreme one in this context, I’m sure that Sports Interactive have many success stories to negate this view. But why do we need to be spoon fed such uninspiring numbers when we have the endless joy that watching football can provide?

Share this article