After Through the Wall, and a dodgy (by which I mean rubbish) text adventure called Planet of Death (of which no record exists), one of the first games I played on my ZX Spectrum was Football Manager. It was slow, written in BASIC, and the amount of control you had over the success or otherwise of your team was minimal. You could pick the best team you had, but there were no formations or tactics or anything complex like that.

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Despite all that, Football Manager was a great game — the highlights left you in a nervous clinch with the speccy. If you looked away, would your goalie boot the ball to safety (no graphic characters left for diving or any animation like that)?

To celebrate the coming of the new football season, I present famous footballing scenes — as depicted through the eyes of Football Manger on the 48k Spectrum. God bless Kevin Toms.

Maradonna's Second Goal V England, World Cup 1986

That’s this goal, the greatest off all time? Hmm…
You can see a little pixel Peter Reid trailing in his wake.

Gordon Banks's Save from Pele, Mexico 1970

That’s this save. The greatest of all time, I think.

And to finish, the second most famous goal of all time:

Geoff Hurst's Third against West Germany in '66

Want to play Football Manager now? You can via the gift of java emulation.

Is the target market for this really worth using Google Ads?

Fury at matches abroad - Birmingham Mail - thank god that the awful picture of me didn’t make the online version.

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Previous Rant 

“It’s a great chance for your brand” said David Gold, Chairman of Birmingham City, about the plan to destroy the concept of league football and play one Premier League game abroad per team, per season.

“The Premier League, which is the greatest league the world has ever known, is being adventurous, looking forward, looking to take a brand - which is an English brand - and looking to take it global.”

Forget the odious talk of brands, and the fact that for once there isn’t even the pretence of this being anything other than a money making scheme, this move would destroy the basic concept of league football - one that seems to have worked well for 119 years (120 this March).

The concept of a league is that it’s equal - each team plays every other one. Usually twice, once at home and once away to compensate for the perceived “home” advantage, but any number of times is fair. Not in this system, oh no.

In order to make money, another “random” but seeded match would be added - meaning that each team would play 18 teams twice, and one three times.

“What effect could that have on promotion and relegation issues? Are we going to see local derbies played in a foreign country thousands of miles away? Are supporters supposed to accept missing on the biggest games of their season because it’s being played on the other side of the planet?” Football Supporters’ Federation Chairman Malcolm Clarke (quote found on Pitch Invasion)

David Gold - if the Blues are in the Premier League when this is implemented that’s the day that thousands of the fan will finally give up on a competition that we not only have hardly a hope of winning but that isn’t fair any more.

I think you’ll find that that will be less money overall you grasping bastards.

New England Away shirt released - with ‘QR’ technology:

TheFA.com - Keep your shirt on
England’s rich heritage is married with revolutionary technology by incorporating a QR (Quick Read) code into the shirt’s label. This effectively serves to bring the shirt to life, enabling fans to access a unique QR website.

Upon photographing the code with their mobile phones, fans will be taken to the website where they can obtain exclusive content about UMBRO and England.

We should be too.

This is Sir Norman Foster’s plan for FC Barcelona’s stadium, the Nou Camp - a brilliant echo of Gaudi’s Parc Güell, and it’ll all be built around the current stadium. Not only that, it won’t cause disruption to any of the team’s fixtures - why can’t we do architectural renewal like this?

Image nicked from - Some People Are On The Pitch: ‘New’ Camp