THE FA Cup, Coca-Cola Cup, League Championship, Cup Winners Cup – all these could be yours if you can steer your side to victory.
As manager of an English soccer club, you’re responsible for signing up players, setting up sponsorship deals, upgrading the ground, and more. All the while trying to keep the board of directors happy – too many losses and you’re history!
Premier Manager 97 is a simulation of managing an English soccer club. It’s not an arcade-type game, you can affect what happens on the field only indirectly.
thumbnail page | Next Screenshot: FA Cup draw - the game starts it from round 2. Contributed by Martin Smith (53326) on Dec 18, 2005.
You choose the team, their positions, the tactics, and then have to sit back and watch them play. You can always try giving them a cash incentive which raises morale no end.
You can choose to manage any one of the 92 teams from the English third division up to the premier league. It’s most fun starting off with a lowly-ranked third division team, and trying to take them all the way to top.
During all this you might also get to play in the FA Cup, Charity Shield, and maybe even the European Cup.
Your responsibilities as a manager are vast. For example, negotiating wages and contracts, setting ticket prices, setting up transfer deals, arranging “friendlies”, talking nicely to the bank manager, hiring and firing staff, telling the coaches what areas to work on, and much much more. You can hire an assistant manager to deal with some of these tasks thankfully.
When it comes to the actual match, it’s up to you who to put on. There are a variety of ready-made playing formations, and you can even design your own. At one stage I had to use a 6/3/1 formation due to a few ill-timed injuries.
Depending on your team, decide whether to play defensively, use a sweeper, or go for all-out attack.
The graphics are much improved over previous Premier Manager games.
One big change is that now you have the option of watching each game, either in full, or just the highlights. The game is shown as though watched on TV, with the camera showing the length of the field and zooming in for close-ups.
There is spoken commentary too – all of which really adds to the atmosphere, especially when playing a crunch league or cup game.
Another good aspect is that Premier Manager 97 can be played against other people, up to 20 in fact.
Each player picks a team, and takes their turn in rotation.
This can get quite deadly when you’re drawn to play each other in the quarterfinals of the FA Cup.
Premier Manager 97 requires a 486DX2 66-megahertz PC, VGA or SVGA graphics, double-speed CD-Rom drive, and a mouse as a minimum. It recommends a Pentium if you intend to watch the games, and supports a range of soundcards. There are separate Windows 95 and Dos versions available.
As an added bonus for all those who seem to be able to rattle off facts and statistics about even the most obscure players and clubs, Premier Manager 97 includes a searchable database. You can check out clubs, managers, and players galore.
This game will appeal to anyone who takes an interest in English soccer. It’s easy to play, and far too addictive, especially if you start doing well.
That’s not to say it doesn’t get frustrating, especially when that pathetic little team comes up and knocks you out of the cup.
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