A Love Letter to CM0102. The Best Football Game in the World.

25 years ago there was a Greek goalkeeper, a Bosnian wonderkid, and a big Nigerian centre back. Their names?

Dionysis Chiotis. Eldar Hadžimehmedović. Taribo West.

What do these 3 have in common? They were all absolute gems on one of the most beloved football games of all time.

Championship Manager 2001/2002.

Iconic

It’s a game that is still played to this day and one that myself and the other co-founders of TFG also still play. In fact, It’s often said that CM0102 is one of the foundations of our friendship (we became friends nearly 20 years ago)

My first memory of CM0102 was the demo version that came with our newly bought (and our first) family PC (that was still running Windows 98). You could play one full season in one country on quick start mode before the demo expired. At that particular time I was always United because, why wouldn’t you be? Giggs, Veron, Scholes, Beckham, RVN, Cole, Yorke, OGS and Keane.

One of the coolest starting squads you'll find

I always played a 4-4-2 because what does an 8/9 year old know about evolving football tactics? Not much, and everyone played 4-4-2 back then so it just made sense. I remember that I often either won the league or came second to Arsenal - something that would still happen to this day if you played as those two teams. I also remember that every time I played a season, I got so upset because I signed all these future free transfers including Bixente Lizarazu for the following season, but the demo always expired. That memory still haunts me to this day.

Fast forward 25 years and I’m happy to say I’ve grown. I have a mortgage, I co-own a business, I have a wife, and a baby on the way. I’ve also evolved tactically - I now play a range of different formations on CM0102, all carefully crafted over 20+ years of playing the game. I go through different phases depending on what’s happening in the real world of football and ever since Unai Emery came to Villa, I have constantly tried to recreate his tactics on 0102. That is pretty much impossible because im playing a 25 year old game that has very limited tactical flexibility, but that’s how I like it. My latest tactical phase is playing as many attacking players as possible in the opposition half and leaving my midfield completely exposed - more on this to come in another article.

My Unai tactics

Now let’s just nip this one in the bud quickly - “Why don’t you play up to date manager games?” This is a question I get a fair bit, the simple answer is two fold - 1) - For the reasons I have just stated above, I have no fu*king time for up to date manager games and I just don’t care about the level of detail in them and 2) I just love CM0102.

It lets me switch off and relax because it doesn’t require the level of brainpower I’d need to play up to date games and its quick enough to smash through a season in a few days / week depending on how addictive a game gets. It’s also my era of football and for me, one of my favourite things about doing TFG and playing the game, is to stay connected to that. It’s nostalgia. It’s also one of the reasons why I always go to the 2001 - 2002 season of footballers for when I need to dig deap on a round of The Football Game.

My unbeaten AC Milan team

Now when I started writing this article, I was actually going to talk through a fantastic Roma game that I currently have, but then I started talking about how much I love the game as an introduction and now’s its turned into a border line love letter, so I guess the Roma review can wait. However this does make for a potential series on our TFG blog so watch this space.

CM0102, remains popular and you can still easily find people playing it online and updating databases with current squads. Over the years, people have adapted the game and with new technology comes new possibilities. For years I’ve been able to play on my MacBook which is great but the real dream is to have it on the iPad - I’m still convinced one day soon this will happen!

To have played this game for this long and not get bored really is a testament to the game. Of course I’ve had big spells where I’ve not played it for months, but the point is, I’ll always come back to it when I have time. I wonder how many times I’ve started and failed an Aston Villa career - answer - a lot. It’s a team full of nostalgia - Taylor, Merson, Stone, Wright, Staunton, Dublin but its an old team and for some reason the pressure of managing Villa and sorting that team out always daunts me and I never quite get a game that I’m obsessed with. But the point is, every year, I try another Villa game and the whole experience never gets boring. In fact, after writing this I'm going to try another Villa game!

I did start a new one, and just look at this result!

Maybe that says more about me, but I think its about the enjoyment I get from playing this game. It’s a great escape and it’s the year I fell in love with Football.

With a baby due soon, I probably wont have much time for CM over the next few months (some say 18 years), but the great thing is, it’s not going anywhere.